My Studio, My Mind: 'In ore somnium' and the Art of Capturing Dreams

In ore somnium (48"x48")

There are days when my studio feels less like a room with four walls and more like the very inside of my mind. It’s in those moments, amidst the scent of paint and the quiet hum of introspection, that a piece like 'In ore somnium' is born. This title, 'In ore somnium' – "In the mouth of a dream" – it’s profoundly personal to me. It speaks of those elusive visions that flicker just at the edge of waking, fragments of thought and feeling that are almost tangible, ready to be uttered, yet remain just beyond grasp. This painting is my attempt to hold those dreams, to give them a voice and a form before they dissolve.

When I first laid down the cool, expansive washes of light blue and soft green, I wasn't merely applying paint; I was breathing life into the vast, open space of possibility that a dream begins with. It felt like depicting the quiet before consciousness fully asserts itself, that deep breath before the narrative unfolds. The muted grays and whites that emerged were the in-between moments, the nebulous areas where thoughts aren't quite solid, where the mind drifts.

Then came the lines. When I drew those bold, sweeping black strokes, I was tracing the very paths my thoughts take – sometimes direct and unwavering, sometimes curving unexpectedly, leading into new, unseen territories. They are the structures, the hidden currents that guide the dream's flow. And those smaller, more frantic zig-zags and scattered dots? They were the whispers of ideas, the fleeting anxieties, the tiny details that emerge and recede, adding a nervous energy to the calm.

The vibrant bursts of orange and yellow were moments of pure, unfiltered emotion, sudden flashes of joy or surprise that punctuate the dreamscape. I remember applying the strong yellow arches, feeling a playful optimism, like a half-remembered symbol from a childhood story. And the deep teal, anchoring certain sections, felt like diving deeper into the subconscious, into the richer, more mysterious waters where deeper truths reside.

There are also the more structured elements, like the solid black rectangle with its white, ladder-like steps emerging. As I painted those steps, I was thinking of ascent, of moving through different levels of understanding within a dream, each step a progression or a new perspective gained. And the stacked green ovals, they felt organic and rhythmic, like a quiet growth or a gentle repetition, a soothing refrain within the overall complexity. Even the textured, corrugated pieces I embedded were about layers – the layers of memory, of experience, of the very fabric of our waking and sleeping lives.

Creating 'In ore somnium' was a journey into that liminal space, translating the ineffable quality of a dream into a visual language. It’s about how these dreams, these fragile, potent visions, sit "in the mouth," on the threshold of articulation, shaping us in ways we sometimes only subconsciously understand. Each brushstroke was a discovery, each color a feeling, each line a thought given form, all in an earnest attempt to capture the beautiful, swirling chaos of what it means to dream, and to be alive to those dreams.