Dreamscapes

‘DREAMSCAPES’ embodies the relationship between both natural and industrial worlds. The works present natural structures emerging from and coexisting with harsher metallic objects, such as chains, pipes, and wires. The depiction of these opposite worlds intersecting is displayed in a psychedelic and surreal manner, with objects defying their usual forces of gravity, and with windows/portals lying on strangely oriented planes. The fascination of this relationship between these worlds stems from the changes in my surroundings, from growing up in the remote surroundings of Northumberland, to my current living space in London.

I wanted to create a style of work that’s approached from a creative perspective, being playful, fun, and simultaneously eye catching. I wanted to deter from pure representational art and play more on the idea of satisfaction and aesthetic value, which I’ve been able to develop through the maturing of my own creative intuition, in addition to my underlying knowledge in Neuroaesthetics. In the early stages of this project, I decided to draw using only white on black medium, exploring the application of psychological studies that look into perceptual fluency and high figure-ground contrast. From a psychological perspective, I’m also playing with the idea of taking familiar objects and placing them in unfamiliar contexts, which lends the artwork itself more towards aesthetic judgement.

The sources of inspiration for this body of work are vast. Inspiration has come come passively through being immersed in different countries such as Brazil, Morocco, Spain, and Indonesia. Work from visual artists such as Jonathan Zawada, Jimmy Edgar, Kevin Bray, Sam Chirnside, and Sophie Parker have also been a large source of inspiration. Electronic music subgenres, such as electronica, future bass, and hyperpop have also inspired some of these visual elements, particularly producers that work a lot in producing harsh, metallic sounding snare beats, layered over wobbly, futuristic synths, such as SOPHIE, What So Not, Flume, Jimmy Edgar, Quiet Bison, Arca, and A.G. Cook.

Presented above are the basic foundations of this creative project. With time, I hope to develop my style through different forms of creative media, such as oil pastel drawings, printing, and painting. Stay tuned!

Commissioned work

  1. Perplexed! (White pen on black card, 59.4 x 84.1cm)

    A piece exploring the perception of balance, as well as different orientations and shapes made by the crown of thorns and euphorbia cacti plants, through a series of surrealist compositions that all intertwine together. The title speaks for itself, it’s pretty confusing (although hopefully aesthetically pleasing) to look at! It’s surrealist nature challenges the traditional view of what balance is - when you rotate the image, balance is both achieved and challenged in some way, whichever way you choose to look at it. I’m starting to play with this idea more and more, and I’m really enjoying the outcomes!

  2. Perplexed (2) (White pen on black card, 59.4 x 84.1cm)

    This piece also explored varied orientations, but focused more on a singular composition that was blown up on a large scale, rather than multiple mini compositions intertwining together. Using pieces of scaffolding, metal pipes, and fern leaves, this pieces nicely integrates together elements that are both natural and industrial.