Dreamscapes, Imagination And Weird Alien Planets

I have this tendency when I’m walking down a crowded street in Chicago, overloaded by the cacophony of angry car horns and screeching el train brakes, to mentally escape. While I wish I were more “be in the moment and meditate to the noise,” the reality is that I more often tend toward “zone out and retreat to somewhere else in my mind.” Usually, somewhere filled with a weird, fantastical nature scene that is just far enough away from reality to cushion my brain from the craziness around me.

I love dreamscape imagery for that reason. And I especially love images of landscapes that almost look real, but aren’t. Images that reference nature, but morph it into a strange and dreamy version of itself.

Have you seen the 1973 French cartoon, La Planète Sauvage (Fantastic Planet)? It has long been my favorite for doing just that—twisting the patterns and colors of nature we know into a strange and mysterious backdrop to create an alien planet.

I watched that movie several times before I started working on my show for Firecat, thinking about how I’d like to create just such a dreamy atmosphere for the world I’m building in my artwork. A sense that what the viewer is seeing is something she’s almost seen before. Almost.

I’ve been working on the piece above all week for my show; it’s one of the larger works I’ve done, at 18″ sq. I love that it looks like seed pods…almost. Leaves…almost. Rocks and pebbles and cracks in stone…almost. Something I’ve seen before on a walk in the woods or along the ocean.

Almost.