Lucid

16x20

mediums/materials: phosphorescent paints, found objects, paper, wax, photo collage, oxidative inks, distress paint and inks, acrylic pouring, digitally altered images, acrylic paint, watercolor, spray paint, walnut ink, staining mediums, tissue paper, mica powders, glitter, heavy gel medium, gesso, pebeo prism and fantasy paints, ceramic paint, stained glass paint, alcohol inks, iridescent inks, distress crayons, charcoal, pastels, oil pastels, string, beads, jewelry, gems, chains, buttons, foils, newspaper, vinyl, plastic, walnut inks, india ink, colorshift paints and more!

``` The mechanical gears and circular mechanisms represent the machinery of consciousness itself—the intricate systems that generate awareness, process experience, and create the illusion of continuous self. Their broken, half-buried state suggests the fragility of coherent thought, how easily the apparatus of identity can fragment. The miniature window functions as a threshold symbol, the golden frame representing both escape and observation, the ability to witness from outside while remaining within. Windows in dreams often mark moments of lucidity, spaces where the dreamer can see the dream as dream. The watchful eyes scattered throughout embody the split consciousness of lucid dreaming—simultaneously participant and observer, immersed and detached. One eye watches from near the window, already half-removed; another embedded deeper in the composition remains enmeshed in the dream matter. The turquoise flame-like forms suggest the electrical firing of neurons, synaptic bursts, the biological basis of consciousness made visible as color. The calligraphic marks reference automatic writing and the language of the unconscious attempting to communicate with waking mind. They're messages from the dreaming self to the aware self. The oxidized, rust-like surfaces speak to decay and transformation, how consciousness weathers its own experiences, how awareness corrodes certainty. The predominant gray suggests the neutral zone between sleep and waking, neither fully dark nor light. ```

This work explores the paradox of lucid dreaming—that unique state where awareness penetrates sleep without dispelling it, creating a doubled consciousness that is both creator and creation. The collision of mechanical elements with organic forms reflects the meeting of conscious will with unconscious content, the moment when rational mind encounters the symbolic language of dream. The piece addresses the fragility and power of metacognition, our ability to think about thinking, to be aware of awareness itself. The industrial wreckage suggests how quickly coherent consciousness can scatter, how the machinery of self requires constant maintenance to function. Yet the beauty in this wreckage implies that dissolution might be transformation rather than destruction. The work questions where the boundary lies between observing and creating experience—in lucid states, the witness becomes participant, collapsing the distance between subject and object. The miniature window offers both hope and melancholy: the possibility of perspective and escape, but also the recognition of separation, of being outside looking in or inside looking out. This painting dwells in the liminal space between control and surrender, asking whether true lucidity means gaining mastery over the unconscious or learning to collaborate with it as an equal partner in the creation of meaning.