(WORKSHOP 02) Planning, Drafts and Initial Concept for A2

A2- Impression of your own experience of sleeping and waking. The key terms I am focusing on include: contrast, consciousness, circadian rhythm, dreaming and weightless. The three main threshold relationships which I want to explore are:

• Light / Dark
• Movement / Stasis
• Dream / Certainty

On the same day as planning, I had a go at creating a drawing with mediums I had with me in class. Charcoal and a reddish type charcoal pencil was used to create an image representing the vulnerability I feel when i’m sleeping. The birds represent movement and breaking free into my dreams and forgetting about the stress of the day. The mountain represent “pockets full of dreams”. This piece, although unfinished, got be started on the overall atmosphere and themes I wanted to portray through my interpretation of sleep / wake.

In my next drawing I wanted to create another environment within the image of showing fantasy vs reality or dreaming vs reality. I wanted to somehow draw mountains dissolving into my bedroom. The piece ended up looking like a bedroom which was unintentional but rather cool. Yet I wanted to keep going with my dream to reality concept in my mind.

Since the first thing I see when i wake up is my window, I definitely wanted to incorporate that into my drawing. The darkness and the mountains represent my dream, and the stars make up the script of my dream from the previous night. The birds represent movement and bursting into reality when my alarm wakes me up. The escape the dream state and gone out my window when I become conscious to my surroundings. It can also be interpreted that the dark side of this piece is be falling asleep with mountains of stress and worry and As I fall asleep I escape reality like the birds, only to go into my peaceful sleep and dream state. I then added small pencil sketches which I thought I could use on my final piece if I were to expand on this concept drawing.

For this drawing I wanted to throw away my thoughts and just let my hands work. I simply painted one half of the page with my favorite colour, “Payne’s grey”, and while it was still wet, I scrunched up the paper. On the dry unpainted side I scrunched i up more uniform and in the same direction, and then painted the rest of it in a right blue colour, blending in the middle. I chose to leave parks of the crumpled appear white as it added to the effect of the wrinkles on a bed sheet from sleep. In a way the wrinkles can also represent the worries and stress of the mind prior to sleeping, and once falling asleep, The mind is at ease. I rarely get nightmares so I don’t feel the need to highlight sleep as being stressful or worrying. It is my place to be at ease w my mind and body.

Inspiration:

Nineteen year old artist Dimitra Milan creates dreamy, whimsical paintings inspired by dreams she has actually had. Her work is vibrant in colour and her “abstract realism” style is beautiful. Layered with symbolism, her pieces often provoke deep emotions. They have inspired me to create my own dream piece.

“I paint my dreams and I dream my paintings”- Dimitra Milan