Prisms of Debauchery series
This body of work began from having a series of hypnopompic hallucinations. Waking up and seeing projections of my dream state with my eyes open in complete darkness. The figures appear to be in black and white with shards and prisms of colorful light reflecting into rainbow patterns, drips, lines and bubbles. The figures are visibly in pain and reaching out, terrified and saddened. Their mouths forming silent screams and appear to be aging and distorting before my eyes. I struggle to see clearly in the darkness as these images break up, fade in and out and often become too dark to see. Often, they appear to be wearing circus and religious garb or nothing at all, looking fragile, slow and have no distinct gender. I am still working out these visuals and concepts within my subconscious, combined with my interests in historical and cultural traditions within societies which both separate and unite humanity. The insertion of various elements from my life experiences, places, memories, literature and the arts also make their way throughout. Working on unprimed canvas has given me both the tactile experience of building my surface from raw cloth while forcing the paint into the canvas, as well as the quality of color, light and the darkness in my visions. Materials used are acrylic, watercolor, charcoal and pastel.
