Awakening a Cold Dream
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Cold Dream (2023) is a painting caught between clarity and fog — where the subconscious leaves a trace but refuses a narrative. Part of the Hand-painted Photography Collection, this 48 x 48 inch mixed media work fuses photographic realism with painted ambiguity to create an experience that feels both intimate and distant.
Built atop a black-and-white photo, the image has been veiled with layers of misty paint — soft whites, icy grays, and shadows of pale blue. Portions of the image peek through but remain indistinct, like fragments of a dream you can’t quite piece together upon waking.
I created Cold Dream during a time when my thoughts felt quiet but dense — not heavy, just hidden. The work emerged from that silence, and I resisted the urge to explain. Dreams don’t explain themselves. They linger. They stain.
This painting shares a tonal atmosphere with Bill Viola, particularly his slowed, meditative video works where time stretches and emotion thickens. Like Viola, I wanted to create a space that asks for stillness — not for understanding, but for surrender.
Cold Dream isn’t haunting. It’s hushed. It asks nothing of you but your attention. It holds you like fog — lightly, without edges.
As part of the Hand-painted Photography Collection, this painting reflects how memory and identity are layered. Not fixed. Not sharp. But always present.
