Dreamscape (mesa)

A 36x58-inch oil on canvas

A surreal landscape where a barren plateau-shaped spit of land is blown free of its snow-covered mantle by an invisible squall. The land itself exists as if hovering above a black abyss, or as an island floating weightlessly atop the surface of a bottomless indigo sea.

My intent here is the creation of a stark dreamscape. Key to this is the radical contrast of values seen as brilliant light against the darkest shadow, as they oftentimes are in dreams. The absence of any reference to heavenly bodies such as stars enhances a sense of isolation, of suspension in a void; at once as unsettling as it is intriguing.