This painting explores the ways we think about memory. The first layer of the painting is a passage from Fyodor Dostoevsky, describing the feeling of both recognition and loss when we awake from a dream. The image of a brain scan is layered on top of that. Modern scientific imaging techniques can show us a great deal about the brain, but will they ever reveal these inmost thoughts?
I made this one a little differently from the others in my shop. I first laid down the Dostoevsky quote, using a glue-like resist. Then I added a light layer of indigo ink and water and allowed it to dry. I then removed the first resist and added another layer, with the brain outlines, and added more indigo ink and water over that. After everything dried, I removed the second resist. The final image shows both words and brain images as layered and half-seen, like memories.
Yupo is a non-absorbent "paper" made of 100% polypropylene, so instead of sinking into the surface, the ink stays on top and forms amazing patterns as it dries. Made with layers of black and blue ink and water, this painting reveals fascinating shapes and shades in light and dark.
Size: 20 x 26 inches. Ships rolled in a tube.
PLEASE NOTE: THIS IS AN ORIGINAL PAINTING, NOT A PRINT. THERE IS ONLY ONE
The quote in full:
Why, also, on awakening from your dream and entering fully into reality, do you feel almost every time, and occasionally with an extraordinary force of impressions, that along with the dream you are leaving behind something you have failed to fathom? You smile at the absurdity of your dream and feel at the same time that the tissue of those absurdities contains some thought, but a thought that is real, something that belongs to your true life, something that exists and has always existed in your heart; it is as if your dream has told you something new, prophetic, awaited; your impression is strong, it is joyful or tormenting, but what it is and what has been told you—all that you can neither comprehend nor recall.
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Idiot