( WORKSHOP 01) What it Means to Me

Each day I wake up with lingering dreams. The light from the window opposite my bed is the first thing I see when I wake up. That light tells me what the time is and the sky through it indicates what kind of weather it will be. To me sleeping is a state where I feel very vulnerable and fragile. Going to sleep is the time I am allowed to switch my brain off, relax and focus on nothing else but my self and my mind. While going to sleep I let my mind drift off to wherever it wants to go. My sleep state is precious to me. I find it fascinating how the brain functions while the body is asleep. After a long day the body and brain need time to recuperate.

As a dreamer, my art is very dream based and I love the concept of fantasy versus reality. On early mornings my mind wakes up to the sound of birds chirping. On later starts on a summers day, I hear cicadas outside. Everything the brain receives, and the wrinkles on bed sheets which the body creates, all result from the process of sleeping to waking.

The words I think of when:

• going to sleep- quiet, alone, calm, at peace, reflective, darkness, still, familiar
• sleeping- whirl wind, dreaming, recuperating, drifting
• waking- coming into reality, awareness, motion, panic, light, appearing, drowsy

Blind and Concept Drawings

Exploring the thresholds between sleeping and waking and the moments we experience between the two states. I focused mainly on the contrast between sleeping and waking, the movement in our brains when we are unconscious, and the way our brains fade into reality slowly but surely through waking.