Painting Dreams

With a mind of infinite ideas, I believe the most difficult job as an artist is deciding which potential thought to begin nurturing.

The main piece that comes to mind when I thinking about nurturing a thought is, “Breathe Life.” The idea for this painting formed after having an unsettling dream.

The dream had absolutely no visual, just pitch black. Initially there was nothing, but I could feel something was off. Suddenly, the sound of a heart monitor began to steadily beat. No more than four heartbeats, the ear wrenching screech of a flat line filled my eardrums. Panicked, the adrenaline started pumping and I could feel all of the blood rushing through my veins with my heart beating out of my chest.

I prayed that it was not a sign of someone I loved about to lose their life. But moments before I could bring myself out of the dream, gentle draft of air hit my face as though someone or thing was portraying a sense of recitation. Once I found relief that the dream was not foretelling, I still could not get it off my mind so I decided to create the visual.

Working with limited senses, I had no choice but to tap into what I felt and let my imagination do the rest. The leading factor was the soft, compassionate breath so that is where I started by. Instinctively, I could imagine the airflow leaving the lips of a woman. With no general direction for the backdrop, I just free styled until I could pinpoint where my hand and mind were guiding me.

While working on this piece, I was also building that VCUarts portfolio. So, since I had already completed a fair amount of the painting, I did include it as a submission even though it was not to my satisfaction. Here is how “Breathe Life” appeared April 15th, 2015.

After submitting it with my VCUarts portfolio, I continued to paint. Unsure of what direction I really wanted to take the painting, the frequency of how often I worked on it decreased. Eventually I ended up abandoning my work to begin a different piece. It sat untouched for a stretch of roughly six months, until my mother rented a studio space to set up shop for her jewelry business, Patrice’s Custom Pieces, in February 2016. This would be the first time I showcased my work so I was ecstatic to design her studio. Once I had that motive, the direction became clear.

A month later my mother’s studio interior was in effect, a full 360°. “Breathe Life 2016 Edition” started the scope.

A year later, she decided not to renew the lease on the studio so I took down my works and have continued to evolve this. The most recent edition of "Breathe Life" can be admired in my gallery.

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