Arielle Keen
'looking up'
I created a collage for this work using my photo as a base. The photo I selected is of my three close friends and peers in a sunny and somewhat secluded city scene. The idea I want to convey behind the piece is our current state as dreamers, and that while our dreams and aspirations may or may not have much in common, we all have things that we are aspiring to right now and our pursuit of those things is only just budding. The blossoming of our future selves is just above us now. The transitional state is oncoming and we will soon have to get to know ourselves in new ways, but we should appreciate this anticipatory and hopeful state where we don’t yet know how our lives will pan out.
Audry Ryan
'Rêves de feu'
The theme Dreamers really gives the artist free range to do whatever your mind comes up with. For my piece, I was inspired by the idea of “your limit is your imagination”. I came up with the idea from a dream I had where I was walking in a forest following a pixie and it was leading me to its home. A fire fairy in the woods exploring her use of magic, the limits of her powers and the uncontrollable and unpredictable aspect of fire, it's dangerous and beautiful. I was walking around and I touched a flower and it burst into flames. My work is a fantasy, dream-like, book fairytale come to life..
Cate Gransaull
'Run'
The overall meaning behind my piece stemmed from my interpretation of nightmares, and supernatural beings manifesting into reality. After being given the theme of ‘dreams’; my initial thoughts were to twist ‘dreams’ and instead represent nightmares. I’ve always had a very active imagination, and growing up with two older brothers meant I watched many horror films. This left me with a weird interest in pretty much anything to do with the supernatural. I have a dream journal where I collect memories from my dreams every night. Since I was younger, I've had this recurring dream of being chased by a masked figure; and as the figure is coming closer, my feet are glued to the ground. This dream became further inspiration for my final image later. The end result photographs were taken on my SONY DSLR camera, edited/layered using Adobe Photoshop, and showcasing my friend Mabel dressed up as a real nightmare (scary mask and all).
Cien Chou Wilson
In this work, I am exploring dream dissociation and how it translates into our lives. I wanted to tackle this topic to bring awareness through conversational art. The soft edges and tones promote a surreal state.
Danielle Liwag
'Dimensions'
The broken mirrors represent dimensions; the one on the person’s lap illustrates the dimension they are in. It has a hole in the top center to show ‘the eye,’ which represents R.E.M (Rapid eye movement); ‘The first adventure to oblivion.’ I spray-painted it silver to make it blend in with the actual mirrors. The flower image of it portrays the chrysanthemum, the birth flower of November. I started making this art piece in November. The paper with words represents everyday conversations, while the papers without words portray overthinking, illustrating the unspoken words. The “Dream Gate” is the outer piece. The glass piece on the left represents the dreamer; it shows the human perception in dreams. The right glass piece shows a fish; it portrays the dreaming state. Where the human flow and the dreaming state meet, it illustrates the feeling of being carried by the wave of dreams. I chose mixed media to portray how dreams primarily work, and how the people, the surroundings and the dream itself change drastically without even knowing it.
Ella MacDougall
This artwork emphasizes the contrast between what is reality and what is a dream. The focal point of the piece is a girl who is caught in between two moments. On the left side she is blurry, out of focus, and in another sort of dimension in dreams, whereas on the right she is more clear, in focus, and in the present moment. The embroidery of a rib cage represents feeling caged in and then the flowers represent the blossoming of ideas/dreams breaking out of a cage. The candle represents the lightness and goodness of life, similar to how dreams could feel like you are seeing the light and the end of a tunnel. The stars I put because it makes me think of moments staring at the night sky and seeing thousands of stars and it is so magical and dreamlike, feeling a connectedness to life. experiencing the vastness of existence of how much is unknown and yet how that can be peaceful to think that some things can only be dreamed of.
Gen Brown
'Showtime'
“Showtime” is a two-colour reduction print of a silhouette, made to represent me, working as a technician in a theatre. This is my connection to the “Dreamers” theme in that working behind the scenes on live productions is a dream job of mine or something I would dream of doing. This print functions as a frame around my photograph, featuring almost a window into the stage curtains from my school. This reduction print is made by carving and printing a single linoleum block more than one time, I chose to carve and print twice for a two ink print. My first carving left light or reflections white, and my second carving carved around shadow or definition to leave them black. I chose simple shapes and colour themes, to let the subject and textures shine.
Ginger Ganon-McGregor
'Daydream'
When it comes to the concept of Dreamers, my first thought was in relation to daydreaming, something that is very present during the lives of teenagers. I took a black and white picture of anonymous friends on the school grounds and covered their faces with the thought bubble representing their daydream. With each acrylically painted thought bubble, every person is shown to have drastically different daydreams, with the main thought being a distracting or ideal situation. My piece shows the individual inner thoughts between people, and what may matter to each one most at the time. With acrylic white lines, I painted the symbolic effect that daydreaming or other internal factors may have on someone, despite being surrounded by other people.
Hayley Lewis
For this project, I wanted to experiment with digital art mixed with photography. For my idea, I took photos from one of my trips abroad and tried to recreate what I saw when I dream about going back there. I had a photo in mind to work with as a start. It was all blue, and from there, I drew some pieces from the photo in black and white. I wanted to make the different aspects of the piece look like it was drawn in pencil. Adding patterns to the drawings added a nice contrast between the bland white wall and the other elements in the photograph. The work is a look back at the photos I took in 2018 when I was on a trip to Europe.
Jemmy Annhernu
'Slipping'
“Slipping” depicts a person in their bed floating upwards towards a space-scape. The piece relates to the theme of Dreamers both literally and figuratively. The character is lying in bed, and the composition communicates that they are slipping into a dream about space; however, the piece has a deeper personal meaning. I have been interested in space for my entire life. I love learning the science of space and Science Fiction is my favourite genre. I have many bold dreams and aspirations for my future, but going to space is the only dream that would be impossible for me to achieve in my lifetime, and I frequently find myself feeling intensely sad about it. “Slipping” expresses a longing for an unattainable dream. The piece is a mixed medium; the figure and bed are Adobe Illustrator vectors and the space-scape uses a multitude of traditional mediums (paint, soft pastel, paper, yarn and beads).
Kaiya Cline
'Warmth'
For this piece, my goal was to explore my definition of romanticism and femininity. With this theme, I wanted to take ordinary scenes and make them extraordinary. A park bench isn’t inherently romantic or feminine. But the scene I created with that bench is. I used coloured pencil and ink on tracing paper and a piece of coloured paper to layer with. I chose to draw my figures on tracing paper because tracing paper has a foggy appearance when layered. I liked that effect because it furthered the narrative that this scene isn't reality. I utilized that effect within the form of the figures. Their bodies are not fully formed because I wanted to emulate the feeling when kissing someone for the first time, where everything is fuzzy and bright. I related this to the assigned theme of Dreamers by encompassing the innocence of dreams about a crush or loved one. When you’re young and have dreams about your crush everything is bright and lovely. Those dreams are exaggerated idealizations of what love is.
Kiana Askary Bashkan
The goddess Theia is the goddess of light and brilliance. Helios, the sun, Eos, the dawn, and Selene, the moon, are her three brilliant children. Nyx is the night goddess. She has a shady appearance. She was a formidable opponent. Because she was stronger and older, even Zeus was terrified of her. I chose these two because they were diametrically opposed. She has soft contours that reflect her calmness, bright golden lines that show her power and strength and clouds that add to her dreaminess. I chose this topic to challenge myself to find ways to merge softness and strength. And I'd like to channel the viewer to look beyond her beauty and see her inner strength.
Leelu Warren
'Marilyn'
For my Magenta project, I made a surrealist, multimedia, rendition of Marilyn Monroe over a picture of an empty dark stage. A contrast of bright colours and strong lines on a moody, dark, photograph. I hope this portrays growth and hope for fame but fame not being all you wanted and feeling distorted and wrong. Dreaming of fame, but fame feels like a nightmare once you get there. I'm using this imagery because I feel like Marilyn Monroe portrayed the height of luxury like no one else, and I can't imagine someone not wanting to be her. I also used the stage because the lighting of the picture and an empty stage connect back to the theme of dreaming and fame not always being what you wanted.
Mady Littler
'Sleep Paralysis'
For this project, I focused on the literal meaning of dreamers “people who dream”. I highlighted a specific aspect of dreaming and sleep paralysis. I've been fascinated by stories of sleep paralysis. Many people describe seeing monster-like creatures in their room while in this state. The brain being partially awake while the body lies asleep causes us to see horrid things and not be able to move. The power of the brain is fascinating. For my piece, I photographed a hall of an apartment that gives off an eerie vibe to me. Something that gives you a feeling of deja vu and nostalgia. Often described as "liminal spaces" I traditionally drew the monster and used collage to add it into the image, attempting to merge real life and imagination just like the brain does during sleep paralysis. I am inspired by the art of Kristopher Zerderstrand and Trevor Henderson. Both make unnerving art pieces that lean towards horror and feature skeleton creatures. I am also inspired by the collage and photo work of Hannah Höch.
Marilou McGuire
'Terror'
Hello, I’m Marilou. I have been drawing for much of my life, and have always had a preference for drawing animals. My art is an escape for me. When I’m stressed and anxious about many day-to-day things; I create entire worlds for myself to get lost in, so I have somewhere to go that helps me relax. I also find that my art reflects parts of myself that I’m not consciously aware of. In this case, I’ve illustrated the feeling I get when one of my dreams turns into a nightmare. My bad dreams never start out as bad; but when they’re turning, I get this feeling that something is about to go very wrong. This piece was influenced by that feeling. With this piece, I was curious about what other people would make of the imposing cat in the background. What does that cat represent to others? Similar things to me, or other things in their life? I feel nowadays especially, many feel something ominous or imposing upon them.
Natasha Brown
My intention for this project is to produce a photo that displays dreamlike qualities. To accomplish this, I took many different shots mainly from the two styles, abstraction, and surrealism. The first part of my investigation was a more abstract approach, including more chaos, obscurity and irregularity. The second part involved different subject matters, deviating from natural beings and elements, and included more human figures, architecture and “man-made” features, shot from a surreal perspective in a more focused manner, looking at the unusual physical components in some of the photos.Overall, I want to focus more on the photo’s compositional aesthetic and the audience’s response to viewing it because it is an uncommon theme in my previous art. My ideas for this project have stemmed from my goals to trust my previous photographic skills and to allow my photography to grow with a looser scheme.
Owen James
'Traffic Light'
For the theme of Dreamers I took an image of an intersection and cut out three circles and redrew them in red, yellow and green to imitate a traffic light. I was inspired by the intersection and imitated the traffic lights and I wanted to explore what would happen as I pulled the image apart and put it back together again. I wanted to show the contrast between the base photo and the parts I drew back in. Like dreams, images and ideas can be disconnected.
Ray Shirt
'Bedroom Sequence'
My piece relates to dreams due to it taking place in a bedroom, specifically my bedroom where most of my dreams start and take place, and takes inspiration from dreams I have had. The minimalist room highlights the ambient noise of the outdoor world, a missing ceiling, one desk with a bunch of papers on the floor, the stress of school piling up and invading your safe space - which is your bedroom. I want this piece to convey a feeling of comfort. It is not reality, nor another “world” but something in between to include aspects of the real world juxtaposed with things that aren't a reality for me, like waking up to a lake every day or my whole entire ceiling missing. For me, this is what dreams are, aspects of our reality combined with our imagination.
Vishnu Premadas
'foam & jelly'
My work is an exploration of my relationship with trauma and the culture I experience. Making art is a form of communicating things I cannot comprehend in words. Helping me reconnect with myself and the world around me when feeling disconnected. In this piece, I explored my relationship with religion, especially the Hindu ideology of enlightenment. Ultimately in this piece, I challenged myself to convey the feeling of enlightenment. Using pen and watercolour, I illustrated a free-flowing composition of myself and objects around me, thus creating a breathable atmosphere. Influenced by Aya Takano, I drew inspiration from her use of colour, creating light washes to emulate her style of work. Using salmon pink and aqua green, I created washes and used a sponge to pick up the colour from the paper. The tiles represent a feeling of excitement and joy that runs through my mind. Religion is fluid, it comes and goes. One’s relationship with it does not have to be stable.
Sydney Spence
'Into a Fantasy'
“Trust the process,” I told myself throughout the entirety of this piece. Scenery pieces are something I didn’t grow up doing; however, I found them everywhere in the career that I want to pursue. Stepping out of my comfort zone and pushing myself to achieve my goals is something that I aspire to do, and want to inspire others to do it as well, I want my art to show that the starting process means nothing; however, the results should be the focus. To be honest, I hated doing this piece. It felt like a burden and something that wouldn’t mean much to me if I actually finished it, at first. However, I knew it could go somewhere, and finishing it gave me the best feeling I had in a while. I focussed too much on what I was doing and not how I was going to finish. Which resulted in me giving up pretty easily. But here I am with a finished piece. I hope that reading this will change people’s perspectives on moving forward with anything they strive to do in the future.
