The Dalí’s Dream Art Contest Online Exhibit

Aaron Hernandez
Un Tiempo Decadente
Barstow, TX

This is part of a dream I had where animals appeared and stars crashed on earth. The moment captured here is just before the appearance of the stars.

Aaron F. Flying
Flying Castle
St. Petersburg, FL

The castle imagery is a staple in Aaron’s work. It is in his signature style with blocks of solid color and bold outlines. 

Adrian Peter
Home again
St. Petersburg, FL

After growing up on the Florida sand my whole life, recently moving to the middle of the Midwest has left me reflecting, longing for the colors on the coast, the salty air, feet in the chilled water… a moment of pure bliss. There are images that drove the creation of this piece that I carry with me always, the sight of a bright green flash from my grandma’s stories, the blazing orange that seared the inside of my eyelids, and even the deep serene blues that envelope your whole world, the beach is filled with a magic that transcends the waking mind, it feels otherworldly when you look close enough. When I dream of paradise, this is what I see. When I dream of home, this is what I see.

Alberto Chirinos
Port of Tampa Hallucination
Tampa, FL

This is a representation of an imposing silo in the Port of Tampa. My architectural fixation focuses on the tension between the object vs the light, and more specifically, on the waiting for something (unreal) to happen at any given moment: Streets, people, space and landscape are examined and developed in seemingly absurd ways. By contesting the division between the realm of memory and the realm of experience, this work deals with the documentation of a real place, and the question of how it can be represented. It is an investigation into the ephemeral nature of allegoric ideas.

Alice Sundstrom
Sometimes It’s Just Too Hard To Make A Decision
Sarasota, FL

This painting is not an illustration of one particular dream, rather its a compilation of the impressions of numerous dreams I have had when faced with an important decision and the anxiety that accompanies that decision making process.

In these dreams, that process is not one fraught with excessive worrying, rather the dreams take place in a calm, logical environment. In my dreams I can look back at past experiences for guidance. This is represented by the two objects in the distance.

I also have the benefit of crystal balls to see possible futures. These are represented by the three clear objects on the right. You’ll notice that they are intertwined with each other representing the complexity of seeing the outcome of the pending decision.

The tug o’ war between the past and future is demonstrated by placing the objects representing them on opposite sides of the composition. While I am in the center contemplating and juggling the two.

Alma Salazar
Escape of a Soul
Alamosa, CO

This is a drawing I started a month before I was shot in the head during a home invasion. It represents my life before and after I was shot in the head.

Amanda Han
Dumont, NJ

Dreams have always been of utmost fascination to me. From keeping dream logs to recording melodies I “composed” in my dreams to sketching places and people I’ve seen in my subconscious, I love exploring this aspect of my life. This mixed-media piece, “In Limbo”, was based on several dreams and experiences I’ve had regarding dreams.

Hypnagogia is the term referring to the transition between being asleep and awake. “In Limbo” could be a representation of what it feels like to be in a hypnagogic state. It can be interpreted in multiple ways. Sometimes, I very much wish to escape a nightmare, leading me to feel like the girl in the painting, clawing her way out of the mirror, or the “portal” in and out of the dream world. However, I’ve often experienced wishing I could live in a dream forever. Perhaps the girl is trying to claw her way back into a dream when beginning to feel the throes of wakefulness.

“In Limbo” can be interpreted in several ways, but most important to me is the captivating mood, color scheme, and elements of the dream that inspired this work, regardless of its meaning.

Amuri Morris
Shelton Johnson Calls
Virginia

This piece focuses on where the intersection between race and class has informed my and many of our collective childhoods. I often think about how overlapping adversities of being black and from a lower class makes areas of “play” inaccessible as a child. One recurring point of inaccessibilty coming from these intersections is the inaccessibilty of greenspace due to the mandated infrastructures of poor black neighborhoods. I want to acknowledge the inaccessibility of some children to a truly fruitful childhood. In these childhoods we can’t remain blissfully unware of the impact of our adversities. Some elements from my past childhood may seem collaged in with my reimagined space, such as in “Shelton Johnson Calls”. In instances such as this I like to imagine that these dual worlds are in the beginning stages of aligning, this early phase in the process may lead the scene to be less cohesive and lead to things such as distortion of scale. In this piece Shelton Johnson calls the children from these government regulated neighborhoods back into the natural world. His life’s mission is to encourage black people to reconnect with the natural world. People of disadvantaged groups need to be invited into the space of imagining what a just world is so we can begin to craft it.

Amy Camacho
The Island of Revelations
Shippensburg, PA

The inspiration behind this piece of artwork is a dream voyage to an island.  The sepia tones reflect that nighttime encounter. The texture shows the emotional turmoil encountered when arriving by sea, in the light of only the moon.  The island in the distance does not represent rest and comfort, but rather just a view.

Andrew Bobrek
Breakfast Beach
Portland, OR

As I fell asleep one night without eating dinner I had a dream of being on a beach made of breakfast foods. This painting was inspired by that dream. Colossal mushrooms fused with dripping eggs towered over me. In the distance beyond the shore was a massive cracked egg floating as if it were a space ship. Hidden in the clouds were  images of animals and family members as an ant begins to eat a massive egg in the sand. This was a subconscious world that was letting me know I was hungry and was awaiting breakfast when I wake. This is Breakfast Beach

Anna Castro
By Night, Flipped, and Upright
Tampa, FL

The world of fantasy stories allows endless opportunities for imagination to take flight. Whether it be dragons, princesses, evil witches—all provide a refreshing escape from a reality that is too often overwhelming. Stories read often follow the mind to bed, continuing to evolve and take shape in dreams until an entirely new adventure has emerged. Though dreams are often fleeting and indescribable, the innocent joy and sense of whimsy that remain with one afterwards are anything but fiction.

Antoinette Duchein LaGrone
Arrivals and Departures
St. Petersburg, FL

This oil painting was inspired by the mysterious and profound questions surrounding our entry into this world and exit from it, the themes of birth and death. As in many of my paintings, there is a partition between worlds, shown by a frame and a gap in the earth – “clouds of unknowing” float between the two.

Ashley Otto
The wave function of the subconscious, transmuted through the depths of a Jungian Sea.
Odessa, FL

Areas of interest that inspired this painting:
• The Shiva Linga is a symbol of the Universe, which means a doorway to the beyond
• Spirituality and how it connects to quantum science.
• Carl Jung Depth Psychology and how it connects to Spiritual Alchemy
• The Dance of Shiva- its meaning in terms of consciousness vs quantum science overlap.
• Reflecting on the bridges we need to develop to connect the gaps between our Brain’s Hemispheres, Left Side, Right Side, to understand the whole of the All and experience the beauty, from the finite scales to the grandest octaves of our Universe.
• How awesome it is that Octopus have 3 hearts and 8 arms. So Inspiring!!!

Full Title of Painting/ Meaning:
“The wave function of the subconscious, transmuted through the depths of a Jungian Sea, eye found i; in the midst of the Materia prima, caught in the space between dusk and dawn. Captivated by the Event Horizon, the Shiva Linga…the quantum mechanical view of nature! …
I marveled at its unfamiliar beauty.”

Avrel Menkes
COVID Landscape
Delray, FL

“TERRIFIED! Stranded in the middle of the Indian Ocean off the coast of Africa, my real life nightmare played out in nightmares during my sleep at night, as well! Would I ever make it home? Or would the endless ghosts of death from this new form of morbidity find me and pull me in too?

On March 5, 2020, when suddenly the world stopped due to the fear of spreading the Coronavirus, I was on a cruise ship from Dubai to Cape Town. Our ship, stranded in the middle of the Indian Ocean off the coast of Africa, was denied entrance to all ports, all closing within days. As we floated for almost a month, with no country, including my own, coming to the rescue, many of the 3,000 passengers onboard were sick, some dying. Worried more about becoming a Coronavirus victim and less about the ship running very low on food, I began to have a recurring dream of succumbing to this new form of death. Miraculously finally making it home, I began painting my nightmare on a 3’x4′ canvas even before I unpacked my suitcases! Dalí entered my desperate dreams to inspire the dire mood and fantasy in my painting that only Surrealism can bring!”

Ayshia Taskin
Astral Series
Falkirk, Stirlingshire

I am submitting my series called ‘Astral’ which looks at creation through mono-printing processes so each piece is a unique print. The astral body is awakened before dawn where the intuitive creative force embellishes the mind.
The Astral Series is created using a printmaking technique known as ‘Gelli Pad’ printing. I make the monoprints by drawing directly on the pad and then transferring it to paper with paint. The series itself is about my desire to reach the Astral Plane and the inability to fulfil this desire. My desires are then visualised as images of what that experience may be like and the associated frustration

Benjamin Heneberry
Five Six Seven Eight
Los Angeles, CA

“Five Six Seven Eight” is my self portrait as a monumental statue, disintegrating into an equally monumental desert landscape; a melding of the micro and the macro; living, human flesh becoming cold, dead ground. In a certain sense every painting is a portrait, and in a certain sense every portrait is a landscape, in that every work reveals something of the character of its maker, and the folds and creases of the human form mirror the mountains and plains of the Earth. Oil and collage on 18×24 panel, this work was inspired by Dali, of course, but also by Max Ernst, Maya Deren, and, somewhat obscurely perhaps, Andrew Wyeth.

Bette Ridgeway
Dancing Dreams
Santa Fe, NM

Dancing Dreams depicts the vividness, entanglements, curiosities and competing forces we find in our dreams. Like all of my paintings, it is in sync with my personality, sense of individuality and creative aesthetic. I depict movement in my work, sometimes kinetic and full of emotion – like this one, sometimes bold and masterful, sometimes languid and tentative. I see myself as the channel: the work comes through me; it goes out into the world. It has a life of its own.

My goal is very simple: make something of beauty…lasting beauty. It is important to me that the viewer find something meaningful to them, whether it be a sense of calm, a sense of reviving the spirit or any emotional connection. And I often find inspiration in the striking imagery of my dreams. My dreams, though unique and individual to me, often have underlying universal themes – shared principles of beliefs, values and ideas that are a part of the collective consciousness. We internalize these principles and then they naturally imbue our dreams.

Carla L.
Girl Dragon
St. Petersburg, FL

“Girl Dragon” by Carla L. is a depiction of a fire breathing dragon destroying a village. Her work is very narrative and story driven.

Carlos Solis
March of Heroes
Kennesaw, GA

This painting is about the formation that for many at the time was the promise land, “America.” Which includes North, South and central America.
Standing in the middle ridding his white horse is Simon Bolivar (The Liberator).

Carly Zywno
Do You Read Me?
St. Petersburg, FL

I often find it hard to recall exactly what was just happening in my dream when I wake, but very easily recall the feeling and the intensity of the dreamed “moment”. Naturally, the longer I’m awake, the less and less I can remember as the dream dissolves from my memory. So, when asked to illustrate a dream, I wanted to evoke a strong, intuited feeling. One that’s separated from any narrative but shaped by the ephemeral flashes of disjointed imagery as I attempt to make sense of the nonsensical. Contemporarily, dreaming is thought to be more likely a byproduct of your brain consolidating information from the day and less “subliminal manifestations”. Certainly less romantic. Nonetheless ,humans can’t help but infer meaning from their dreams and will continued to be inspired, delighted, and occasionally horrified at the capabilities of their own sleeping brains. Going forward in our scientific understanding of dreams, I hope they can retain some of their mystery and why it would not-so-flippantly cause us to vividly hallucinate on a nightly basis.

Daniil Vyatkin
Dogs of war
St. Petersburg, FL

War is a pet that eats leftovers from our table. Many sheltered the war, it is divorced and requires sacrifice every day. But how to get rid of this monstrous pet? Can it be possible to live without war, or will it remain and multiply and again again as a pest? Maybe, probably misses this monster?

Daocta Maphis
Dreams
Morningside Drive, FL

My work is digital, a style I call Digital PHra (PHoto Revised Art) in this style that I created, I only use my subconscious to create my images. The piece of art I have made for submission is called Dreams. It started, like all my digital art, with a photograph that I had shot and chose for inspiration. From there I work with the image in photoshop to move the pixels around like paint on a canvas. Letting my mind see what is developing. The photograph that inspired the creation of Dreams consisted of old glass bottles sitting on a table in an antique store in front of a window looking out on the beautiful woods of Juno, AK. The soft light coming in through the bottles with a limited color pallet has always been a favorite photograph of mine. As I was moving the photo’s pixels around I could see the vagueness of a head and half of a body. As my mind wondered more I kept exploring until I mentally stepped back to examine the balance of color and light. I saw another figure starting to develop that looked a bit like it had flowers where the head area would be. I continued to finish this idea out with final touches and tried to figure out what these two figure were doing and thinking. I’m not sure what most of my images mean until some time passes, but there  has been time when reviewed I can understand what I created meant by a remembrance of a  conversations that I had within the last week or with an incidents that had accrued in my past.  My daughter lived in Juno for ten years about six years ago, I was able to visit her four times during her stay. The memories that I have of bears with cubs wondering around as close as your backyard bird bath, the glaciers, the abandoned gold miner’s shafts and housing that were left behind and tribal native heritage will always be vivid.   What a beautiful and strange place to live.

David Gonzalez Restrepo
Surrealismo de las Citoquinas
St. Petersburg, FL

Surrealismo de las citoquinas es una obra en óleo sobre lienzo que esta relacionada con las proteínas proinflamatorias y antiinflamatorias producidas en el proceso de cicatrización de una herida. El capullo de los diferentes artrópodos que se encuentran en la pintura está compuesto principalmente de fibroína de seda, con la cual se construyen diferentes biomateriales, entre ellos apósitos que permiten procesos de regeneración y reparación de heridas crónicas.

-Hay una discontinuidad de una estructura celular, hay una herida en mi piel. El sistema activa su vía innata, los macrófagos fagocitan patógenos y células dañadas, los macrófagos se especializan en grandes maquinas productoras de citoquinas proinflamatorias como la interleucina-1 y el factor de necrosis tumoral (TNF), que se producen como respuesta a una infección, simultáneamente aparecenlas células T auxiliares de tipo 1 (Th1), estas células producen interferón γ (IFN-γ) que activan los macrófagos a lo largo de la vía clásica. Cuando se supera la fase inflamatoria emergen los macrófagos antiinflamatorios y simultáneamente las células Th2, estos macrófagos secretan citoquinas como IL-10 y el factor de crecimiento transformante beta (TGF-b) que promueve la regeneración del tejido con propiedades antiinflamatorias, estos macrofagos inhiben citocinas proinflamatorias . Los macrófagos antiinflamatorios se polarizan a través de la vía alternativa mediante la activación de la interleucina4 (IL-4).

-Los artrópodos salidos de su capullo de fibroína observan con latencia el desarrollo de una mano con su nueva piel discontinua y a la vez tan integra: es el proceso de regeneración de una herida mediada por la proteína de fibroína de seda

Debbie Garrett
Portals
St. Petersburg, FL

My Portals of dreams are muti doorways of spaces and places, each entrance moves to worlds of dimensions, flight and wonder.

Dietrich Adonis
The Floating Man
Tampa, FL

Since I was a boy I’ve had recurring lucid dreams of me flying or floating in the air. In Art School, The Magic Realist / Surrealist were big influences especially the art of George Tooker and Hughie Lee-Smith.

After my daughter was born she liked blowing bubbles and playin with balloons. Then, I began having dreams of her holding me as a balloon floating in the air. Each time she lets go of the balloon: I WAKE UP.

This is an interpretation of one of those dreams. . .

Dilenia Garcia
The Threshold
Lake Wales, FL

The painting investigates the tension between different states of mind and conflicting realities. It attempts to clarify the threshold between clarity and uncertainty.

Who am I? What is my role as a woman and as an artist? How do I define my sense of self in these tumultuous times? Elements reflected in the painting began to populate my dreams.  I chose to  represent my dreams in a self-portrait at a moment in which a crossroad is faced and met with a resolve and defiance.

Donna M. Richardson
When Donna Maria Loves (The Heaven’s Obey)
Tampa, FL

This is what my dream looks like…Since I was a little girl, I’ve had the same recurring dream that I was running with wolves. On one side there’s a domesticated dog, representing all the ways society at-large has tried to “tame” me throughout my life. On the other side, there’s a wolf representing my feral creativity. This is the dream of finally embracing my true nature and allowing it to explode on the world! Because when Donna Maria loves, the heaven’s obey!

I’ve developed a unique art style which I’ve coined, “Indie Pop Art”. Which celebrates the noble beauty and divine nature of people of indigenous descent, and contemporary American culture.

What distinguishes my work is that I incorporate my love of aboriginal dot painting and the use of negative and positive space to weave across canvases, drawing power from roots deep in sacred African and Native American art, spirituality, and ritual.

I believe my work pushes the boundaries of the imagination with a style that’s honed by world travel, years of life experience, deep family connections, public school teaching, and a keen sense of spirituality.

Emily Griest
Submersion
Tampa, FL

This work represents the moment right after one slips into a dream state and becomes submerged within the dream. The figure falls into the water, but the surface remains smooth, almost as if she slipped peacefully into the water the way one falls asleep. The swirling colors in the background represent the many different locations and themes of dreams. The downward spray paint marks help to pull the figure down deeper into the dream and deeper into the subconscious.

Frédérique Rennuit
little boy’s dream
Heist op den Berg, Belgium

Once upon a time a little boy was born : his name was Noah
all wished him to lead a happy life not an easy task for a little child, in a world filled with wars, hatred and aggression one day he had a dream about a flood that would come and return the earth to it’s initial state ‘Little boy’s dream’ is a baroc assemblage with symbolic elements the broken eggshells for instance stand for fragility but they indicate rebirth and a new beginning as well the pigeon of course stands for the desire of peace and econciliation this work stands for the wish of a better world for everyone

Geff Strik
Leap of Faith
St. Petersburg, FL

This is the representation of  recent dreams , sliding and falling again and again from cliffs and mountains, keeping sliding and landing safely on thick  deep comfortable green pasture .

Gerald Sombright
Colorful Cosmos
St. Petersburg, FL

A female’s eye in the middle of a beautiful hodge podge of colors and symbols.

Gianluca Lattuada
The dream
Milan, Italy

The recurring themes in Lattuada’s work are the energy of bodies, eroticism, violence and the transience of life (“memento mori” philosophy). The body therefore becomes the perfect tool to represent all of this in a universal way, to remind us that we are all human flesh, without any distinction. He believes that art should mostly talk about life, desires, subconscious, dreams, deep secrets and pain of contemporary society. Faces are often not recognizable because everyone is metaphorically the same, regardless of the city or country, as well as their age, ethnicity and geographical origin. In his works there are references to underground and urban culture and elements from the past, not only from the traditions of classical art but also literature, through quotations and references to the great masters. It is also a way of remembering that “we are what we were”.

“The dream” tells about man’s will for power, between death and the aspiration towards the absolute. Life is therefore a dream, in which man has to face anxieties, fears, nightmares, challenges and difficulties to reach his ultimate goal. The quote is from Dante: “You are not dead, you are lost, our soul who complains.”

Grace Ogrodny
A Wise Man Once Said
Largo, FL

“A wise man once said” depicts a soul contemplating his life. Patience.

Irene Peterson
Like a Moth to the Flame
Schaumburg, IL

On the edge, drawn to the sight with awe, curiosity, or resignation. 
The most poignant figure is the one that is closest, but indifferent

Jacek Szleszynski
Ocean of Dreams
acrylic on board
100x80cm
Wroclaw, Portland

‘Unexpectedly drowsiness came over her so she put the book down and closed her eyes.
-This noise, as if of a restless sea – she thought – where is it coming from?
As usual, on the verge of consciousness, strange images began to appear beneath her eyelids, in which she …
A wave of sleep washed over her.’

The painting ‘Ocean of Dreams’ was inspired by a famous scene from the novel ‘Morpheus of the Planet Onirion’ by Gehara von Ulhuird.

Jack Tovey
Between two Worlds
St. Petersburg, FL

The image depicts my mother caught in limbo in her coma between the here and now and the afterlife. Things in the world as it is are in turmoil but the afterlife is more scary because it is separated by bars, the footing is not solid, and the atmosphere is in flux. Even though the gulls that normally signify there is safety on land do not seem to know which way is up and as such add to the anxiety.

Jaff Seijas
Resistance in Black and White
St. Petersburg, FL

This work was revealed in a dream. I was thinking about Ohm’s law earlier in the day and am sure that had something to do with the subject matter of the dream.
I saw a kind of living panorama enacted before me…intricately explained in the dream concerning the principles of “resistance”. When I woke up I made a rough sketch and later I elaborated on the idea in this work.

Jeffrey Fisher
Rudder on the Pier
Rosaryville, MD

This is my friend’s dream. Juliet finally got to live in the house that goes with this pier, after admiring it so often as she sailed past it, as a child. Within a week after I gifted it to her, she had to leave it to live in a more accessible place to care for her husband who developed ALS. She has told me it is the most special gift she ever received. Rudder has since moved on, as has her husband, Jeff. It captures a special and good time that Juliet dreams of.

Joanna Mazurek
The Mystery of the Island
New Port Richey, FL

The painting depicts my dream of me flying over an Island, exploring from above what is happening on that land surround by water. I saw a land with no people, but with the objects left behind by them, like pitchers, cars, tea pots, buildings. I saw the movement and motion of daily life. I felt an energy of people who seemed to be in hiding, invisible. I was looking for them. I was aware of their presence. Everything made sense there and had a perfect placement. There was a sense of peace, abundance and harmony.
The meaning of painted objects and symbols:
White bird- symbolizes here enlightenment, ability to see beyond
Pitchers- abundance
red object-homes
Yellow and blue form behind the bird- The Source, Higher Intelligence
Blue round shape in the left corner- motion, movement, journey
Blue background- represents tranquility and peace

Jocelyn Chase
Everything Is Everything
acrylic paint, colored pencil, RC photo paper
50x68inches
Tampa, FL

In 2022 I created this painting while my dog Mona Lisa was passing away from a sudden diagnosis of Cancer. It’s called ‘Everything Is Everything’ and is based on a sensation I felt during a dream where I realized she would need to be put to sleep. It was a dream full of grace and relief for my dear friend’s pain.

Julia Rosen
SHIFTING SHAPES
Albany, NY

Moving colors and shapes on paper…..inspiration and the subconscious take over.
A new world emerges.
A shift in 1 shape can change everything.
Julia Rosen

Karen Waltermire
Terrified of the Unknown
Alexandria, VA

Inspiration for my painting: Terrified of the Unknown I have been feeling a change coming over me that has been playing out in my dreams. Sometimes I wake up feeling terrified and have vague memories of being surrounded and hoping that whatever is after me in my dream won’t see me. I painted this self-portrait with one wide open eye looking at what I fear is after me, the shapes reveal my struggle and the bright colors suggest that the change is positive and I have nothing to fear.”

Kathleen Frank
Ebbetts Pass II
Santa Fe, NM

Ebbetts Pass, oil on canvas, is a depiction of my favorite route to our family’s California cabin from the eastern side of the Sierra Mountains. It is a narrow, winding, gorgeous and dangerous road we have driven countless times and is embedded in my psyche. You travel through lush, forested slopes to the dry desert of the eastern side. We’ve seen cattle drives on foggy, misty mornings and a picturesque lake sits atop the highest point – a spot for fishermen and picnickers on top of the world. Our favorite lake is below Ebbetts Pass; it is a great place to swim among the rock islands in ice cold water that takes your breath away.

The concrete part of my creative process comprises trips several times a year throughout the west and Southwest, hiking and photographing vistas for future paintings. The goal is to catch the light in all its strangeness and beauty, and pattern that reveals a glimmer of logic in complicated and tumbled landscapes. Back in my studio, I select images to paint. What enhances my paintings is that my time spent searching for beautiful scenes, reveling in them, photographing them, emotionally reacting to them, thinking about how I want to depict them – this mental and physical exertion seeps into my brain and then into my dreams. What I carry away from the dreams – some hazy examination of the vibrant colors, sensations associated with the imagery, old and new memories of the scene combining, smells, weather conditions – all this works its way into a painting.

Ketsy Ruiz
#hurricanemaria
Largo, FL

I didn’t hear from my family for 4 days when Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico. I swear it felt like 4 weeks. I tried to book a flight home to Hatillo right after and there were none. I was left crying in my room and at work everyday hoping for my phone to ring from a 787 number. I had these nightmares and couldn’t sleep wondering what had happened and if my family was safe.

Laura Baran
That In-Between Space
Ink on paper and fabric; Framed
31″x38″x2
Odessa, FL

This piece is the sifting and multifaceted layering of unconscious thought, inspired by the surface of the water and its reflections. The idea being that what we consciously understand or remember has still so much more beneath the surface, often forming in our dreams.”

Laura Serdiuk
The Muse Is Within
Clermont, FL

The artwork was inspired by dream state. The scene is cast in darkness, suggesting a moment suspended in space, amplified by the encapsulated woman’s face with many universes and constellations surrounding, to exude atmosphere of transformation and revelation at once imprisoning the subject and feeding into her metaphysical capacity to observe and transform.

Leslee Cramer
Escaping PA
Palmetto, FL

This collage is inspired by a dream I had when living in rural Pennsylvania.
In my dream were generational industrial workers; steel workers, coal miners and farmers. It was dreary, gray and rainy and I was trying to escape to the sunshine in Florida. Andy Warhol showed up next and he was trying to escape as well. I’m sure he may have felt out of place in PA as much as I did. He certainly must have dreamed of his eventual fame in the larger NYC art scene. You can see him dreaming bigger and planning his escape. He’s obsessed with fame and all that it brings. He sees art in the ordinary and made sure everyone else did too. Sadly, I woke up before we escaped. This collage perfectly captures the images in my dream.

My work is a mixed media, multilayered collage process. The canvas is painted, then stamps to create more texture and pattern. All collage pieces were hand cut from art history books and decoupaged to the canvas. Paint pens used in the details.

Linda Keene
Fresh Start
Largo, FL

We bought a condo in Florida and move back and forth between Cape Cod and Largo. The transiti9n was hard for me. I was very anxious about the move and felt disconnected. I went to the Beach Art Center in IRB and found my tribe…fellow artists. Created this mixed media piece inspired by this experience and some difficult months. So the happy ending was that the timid bunny adjusted and became inspired ,happy and content in her new life and choices. I love Mary Oliver so added an excerpt from her poem.

Linda Benoit
La Lumière en Pleine
Chicopee, MA

My inspiration for this work was Dalí’s Persistence of Memory with its iconic melting clocks. In that painting, the clocks are out in the sun and appear to be transformed by the light. That dreamscape invites us to conceive of time as a flexible, malleable phenomenon. La Lumière en Pleine is informed by both Dalí’s surrealistic rendition of time and Edvard Munch’s expressionistic The Scream, with its emotive style and brightly colored orange and yellow sky. La Lumière en Pleine attempts to juxtapose day with night and leaves us reflecting upon “lived” time (le temps vécu).

Lorena Greer
Blossom Out
Zephyrhills, FL

Under the most yellow/ Orange sunset laying on the beach in Cartagena-Colombia alone awake but dreaming. Surrounded by thoughts popping out of my soul with the speed and strength of a puma, with wisdom and promising achievements but light and easy to disappear like a butterfly.

Louis Markoya
Neural Suspension of Consciousness, The Dream
St Petersburg, FL

The central female figure of “”The Deam”” is both falling helplessly and ecstatic at the same time which can only happen in a dream. She is suspended in the actual neural network that is creating her dream, and the chemical substances that feed the network are seen floating around and about her body.

This oil painting has been transformed into a Holographic 3D lenticular print, which without special glasses, or viewing apparatus, delivers on Dalí’s dream, spectacular 3D in full color without assistance.

My painting of the dream not only depicts the neural workings of a dream, but fulfills Dalí’s dream of 3D, a masterwork in all dimensions.”

Madie Gotshall
The Purpose of a Dream
St. Petersburg, FL

“The Purpose of a Dream” takes the viewer on a journey of self-discovery. The painting pulls imagery from multiple places of significance; combining them with a warped yet recognizable portion of a self-portrait. It also serves as homage to Dalí which influences the surrealist elements of the series of paintings.

Marija Micic
St.George and my Soul
Largo, FL

Spring will come again! All living world, every living creature lives in new beginning. Once, the flame of earthy joy and pleasures will extinguish, all passions,all desires of body and soul will wither, exept one, one and only…Please, defeat all my dragons and take me as child to my home in eternity when my last spring comes.

Mark Brown
Var Universe =
St. Petersburg, FL

I have tried to understand a dream/vision that I experienced after drinking Ayahuasca 10 years ago. In the dream a magnificent connection to a maternal intelligence spoke directly to my soul to heal generational wounds, physical wounds and understand that I was loved unconditionally. I was transformed in my capacity to understand and build software application thus Var Universe =

Mark Temlett
Landscapes on the beach
Paris, France

The drawing represents a surrealistic view of different beaches in Spain, when I went to visit Salvador Dalí’s landmarks, I was inspired by different Freudian approaches and by the rowing boat I saw in Cadaqués
I imagined, while lying on the beach an octopus drinking ink, sitting in a deck chair, the boat with the tree-like mast with clothes hanging on pegs acting as sails, a figure with a phonogram as a head playing paso doble and a bull hopping out towards a matador’s cape, a Toledo sword is bending on the bull’s back, there are boats sailing towards the horizon, a tea cup with a tea bag tag serving as a kite, red peppers as trees by the seaside town, a green seagull holding a fishing line with clothes drying on it, there is also Salvador Dalí’s boat (as seen in Figueres Museum) parked on a cactus, an egg coming out of a snooker 8 ball, frying in a pan a beach ball, rackets, towels and an old radio a scene inspired by my visit to Dalí’s Figueres, Cadaqués and Púbol

Mark Yale Harris
Chaos
Santa Fe, NM

My bronze sculpture Chaos embodies the time in a love relationship during which it is difficult to distinguish one being from another, the enmeshment that can happen when emotional and physical boundaries are crossed. Bereft of these borders, a couple is defined more by the relationship than by their individuality. When I have a creative spark of an idea, in this case thinking about relationships, permeable personal margins and loss of self, I let it simmer to give me time to explore what I am actually feeling. Since my aim is to distill the exquisiteness of a passing sensory experience, I am open to all avenues available to me when considering how best to depict this in a tangible form. The time spent before taking tools to hand and beginning the sculpture includes quiet reflection, active sketching and trusting in anything that comes to my mind – bidden and unbidden. This is
where my dreams come into play; they can be a fertile ground for creativity. My dream world is another muse – one with wonderful limitless potential, free to wander unconstrained by the realities of the conscious world. Unexpected connections and imagery can appear in my dreams.

Marquise R.
Queen
St. Petersburg, FL

“Queen”, by Marquise R. was inspired by a person playing checkers. “I like color,” Marquise said.

Mary LaGarde
A Marvelous Time a/k/a The Ghosts of Holiday House
Naples, FL

My painting was inspired by a meditative dream I had after hearing Taylor Swift’s song “”The Last Great American Dynasty””. Her song tells the tale of Rebekah Harkness, the wealthy widow who hosted lavish and sometimes outrageous parties at her “”Holiday House”” mansion in Watch Hill, Rhode Island. That mansion now belongs to Taylor Swift who has carried on the tradition of lavish parties with her celebrity friends. Taylor Swift’s song mentions that Rebekah lost money in card games with Dalí. I painted Rebekah with a distant look on her face after losing a card game to Dalí. I gave Dalí a hand of cards known as a Flush. When it came time to paint Taylor Swift, I gave her a Full House. That is a winning hand symbolic of Swift’s phenomenal success as a singer/songwriter.

In 1965, Rebekah hired Dalí, to design a $250,000 ($2,129,802 in today’s dollars) funeral urn which she intended to hold her ashes after death. The urn became known as the “Chalice of Life”. It was made of 18 karate yellow gold and featured a lapis lazuli base and butterflies encrusted with diamonds, rubies, sapphires, and emeralds. After she died, Harkness’ ashes were placed in the Chalice of Life just as she requested. However, the urn was not big enough. Her daughter commented that “just a leg … or maybe half of her head, and an arm” fit in the urn. The remaining ashes were carried home by Harkness’ daughter in a Gristedes supermarket shopping bag. For some unknown reason, the lid of the urn was later left open which prompted a witness to exclaim, “Oh my God, she’s escaped.”

Maryann Hamilton
Dream Weaving
Pinellas Park, FL

Pages of my dream logs, that I’ve kept since the 1960’s, have been reproduced on my handmade paper, cut or torn into strips for weaving. I love seeing how the different ink colors, images, and changes in my handwriting over the years add texture on the various shades of fibrous paper. Rereading the dreams while selecting the pages took me back in time to moments of clarity they gave me, premonitions of changes to prepare for, and healing of traumas. Threads of awakening the Heart song of my Soul’s journey through this life.

Michael Valladarez
Dalí in his Glory
Tampa, FL

Dalí and his work serve as an inspiration in all my art. He was a pioneer and trailblazer.
This 30 x 40 original dry-brushed oil piece was not a commission, but is housed in my bedroom, to serve as a reminder of the potential the future has.
Part of an original series “Glory”, the crown represents the greats. Among Dalí, this series includes Jean-Michel Basquiat and Andy Warhol as well.

Miel Stapel
Tempest
Tilburg, Noord brabant

A restless association of nightmarish thoughts and images.

Natalie Christensen
Spread
Santa Fe, NM

Spread is a part of collaborative photography project from Natalie Christensen (Santa Fe, NM) and Jim Eyre (London, UK) of a surreal cityscape that embodies the disquieting experience of how our lives have been transformed by the social media hyperscape, as reflected in dream phantasmagoria. Exacerbated by an isolating pandemic, our reliance on the tiny screens on our phones to link us to the world has grown and pulled us down a rabbit hole of temporary validation that is addictive. But the information overload in these commercially mediated spaces that present themselves disingenuously as free, freely accessible and ultimately beneficial can also amp up insecurity and self-doubt, resulting in frustration, uncertainty and disappointment.

When the digital realm is all we have – rather than a supplement to “real life” – it can infuse into our unconscious and later rear its ugly head. It becomes the stuff of nightmares that can cause a strong emotional response from the mind, typically fear, but also despair, anxiety or great sadness. It is in these dream states, or even invading that hallucinatory hypnagogic state – the transitional state of consciousness between wakefulness and sleep – where imaginary images or sensations seem real. Thoughts and images can flutter, melt and transform into a wild thing. We found that often was the arena in which we processed the impact of our forays into social media.
The project is comprised of composite photography of New Mexico and London. Through the artists’ use of familiar and contemporary urban objects, the images contain familiar tropes, yet are oddly disorienting. Architectural fragments and street elements meld together to present multiple points of view and subtle combinations of perspectives on a single visual plane, representing a malleable psychological experience, like seen in a dream.

Natasha von Braun
A dream about an orange procession
Moscow, Russia

Pamela Joy Trow
Dive Into Your Dream
Seminole, FL

My dream is about the moment we decide to go for our dreams–symbolized by the divers. Their arms are focused on entering their dream (the focus needed to get where we want to go). The horizon, the point of convergence, separates the sky (the reality) and the entrance into the water (the dream), where we transform into our best selves (the mermaids). The arms of the mermaid spread out, claiming the space and the new place we now occupy.

But there is a symbol here that represents the dark side of fulfilling our dreams. The mermaids, as they dive deeper into their dreams, form upside-down crosses. Traditionally, an upside-down cross is a symbol of the occult and opposition to Christianity. Sometimes, going for our dreams requires an act of faith. Here, the symbolism is about the unwanted aspects of fulfilling our dreams.

Pedro Hernandez
Delivery
Palm Harbor, FL

The name of this piece is “”Delivery”. It’s inspired by one of my dreams in which a figure with wings delivered my emotions to different entities and I observed how that was happening. To me this is what it means:
In life we ​​go through different phases of joy, happiness, sadness, so we have to be vigilant, if we are in a moment of happiness, enjoy it because it will pass and if we are in a moment of sadness, do not get attached because it will pass too just live your life and don’t let the emotions control you!”

Rayna Loos
Dream Keepers
St. Petersburg, FL

I’m walking but my surroundings are unfamiliar and blurry. Someone stops me and puts these geckos in my hands and I’ve never seen anything like it. Their body was a deep blue to glowing red hue and they felt like velvet. They’re crawling on my two hands and I can feel the delicate grasps of their hands on my skin. They feel familiar like they’re mine and I feel like they’re trying to tell me something. Once I wake, I grab my sketchbook and sketch and color these geckos. I had this dream in the beginning of January and it has completely occupied my mind since. I knew I had to paint them. I researched the meaning of geckos and found that shamans believe that geckos are dream keepers that whisper secrets to fortunate humans. In some cultures, geckos represent luck and prosperity and in Latin the term for gecko translates to fortune and renewal. Their ability to lose and regrow its tail quickly symbolize transformation and the cycles we must go through in life. Then I focused more on the meaning of their colors. Blue is associated with the sky and sea and represents intuition and inspiration. Red is associated with passion and love and represents sacrifice and courage. For me, all of this was making sense and relatable. I left a lot of people and things in 2022 in order to allow room for new growth and transformation and was scared of the loneliness I may face in their absence. Instead I have been finding peace, happiness, and new amazing opportunities in this new year, so far. I believe that the purpose of these geckos is to guide me through this journey and reassure me that I’ve made the right choices to get here. I am grateful for my dream keepers and look forward to following their light.

Rebecca Skelton
Autobiography
St. Petersburg, FL

I dreamed I had wings and could fly, but realized, too late, my feet were deeply rooted. The flock/clouds in the sky came from a vision I had when looking up at cirrocumulus clouds, and for an instant, they were flying people, so I added them to the painting. I think of it as an autobiography. I have a view of myself, but am always surprised to discover that I can’t be what I hoped or believed I could.

Ro Daar
Requiem For A Dream
wood wall sculpture
18″” x 24″” x6″”
Bradenton, FL

Stairs that lead nowhere.
Spirals circling downward.
An oversized pendulum swinging wildly.
The number 12 announcing midnight.
A long dark corridor that ends with a partially opened foreboding door.
My dreams are the anxieties and fears of of everyday life manifested into bizarre imagery.
Nightmares are my inspiration. This sculpture is an acknowledgement of their existence.

Ro Martinez
Rimes Love Connection
Inverness, FL

My artwork was inspired by a dream I had of a very large party attended by people of all nationalities and walks of life, in the dream everyone was happy living in unity. I used a rainbow of colors to show happiness and hearts intertwined to show a connection.

Robin Galindo
Dancing Wild and Free
Kissimmee, FL

While meditating and engulfed in the sound of music from native flutes and drums, this image appeared to me. A circle of trees – my safe space – under the light of the full moon. At the center burns a flame – the heart – which serves as the center of warmth and light. Representing passion and love, the horses perform their dance, always in harmony, always in balance. Grounded by the earth and fire, protected by the trees and overlooked by the magic and majesty of the northern lights. This piece encompasses all that is Love and Passion.

Robyn Crosa
Rainbow Serpant Goddess
St. Petersburg, FL

At night when I go to sleep my spirit guide appears to me in my dreams. She speaks to me about many things. She tells me that she was my mother in a past life. She is my ancestor spirit. I dream that we are sitting across from each other on the dirt floor of a cave. We are wearing animal skins. She tells me, “Robyn I have come to you to tell you many important things. You must listen to me because I am in your dream!” She is a Goddess and she tells me she has a message for the world. She tells me that “” as each of us has faced the dangers of a global pandemic, it is time to humble ourselves before nature rather than resist her power. She tells me to create Gorgeous Goddess Gals which are designed to celebrate the beauty of diversity in all natural things – specifically women! These spiritual symbols are to be made from organic elements that both cherish the feminine and highlight and respect the materials given to us by Mother Earth.””

Indigenous people all over the world have long considered gourds to be a natural female symbol of the Divine Feminine. Designed from gourds in various shapes and sizes, Gorgeous Goddess Gals represent the diversity of the beautiful female form and the power of fertility while counteracting the body image hatred issues facing women and girls in modern civilization. They are altar pieces for rituals, rites of passage, and a celebration of all that is feminine.

As women before us have invoked the power of the Great Mother, the embodiment of Nature, the Goddess in all her many forms to protect them during difficult times, as do these dolls. If we destroy nature, nature will destroy us. If we respect nature, nature will respect us. This is the message I received in my dreams from the Goddess!

Samuel Bartlett
The Seekers
Jacksonville, FL

A dream about large, looming figures that could not possibly float but do, over a wasteland with an orange sky, digging their tendrils into the earth, into the deep, searching, always searching.

Shane Peninton
The Unified Playing Field of Consciouisness
New South Wales, Australia

The reality field, the phenomenal field and the metaphysical Halo of consciousness around the head recede to the zero point of indivisibility, singularity or that of the noumenal universe of which consciousness is a noumen. Note the stringiness of reality or the web fabric of the universe. The ancient columns allude to Atlantis, perhaps and the bottle with a message yet to be revealed. I am looking into the crystal ball as if looking into the future, eluding again to the timelessness of the psyche universe and that of the noumenal universe. I am amazed that I was hot on the trail of unifying Einstein’s Relativity to Quantum, expressed as the unified field that joins all dimensions as one universe(s) or universes as one. But Consciousness recedes forever to zero or what is known on the timeline as point zero or the point between past and present..NOW which is, in my view, the “Unified Field.”

Shawn Dell
Joyce Over My Head
Palm Harbor, FL

I’ve had this recurring dream where I’m drowning, sometimes in a car, sometimes by a wave, but this time was different. I’m wearing a wedding dress and suddenly find myself in deep, deep ocean water. I’m a SCUBA diver so I know what this looks and feels like. But why the wedding dress?
I did a little research on the meaning of dreams and Freud ascribed deep emotion to water; love, hate, fear, etc. The dream came to me at a time when I was having problems with my husband. Deep inside, I began to feel like I made a huge mistake and found myself paralyzed, unable or unwilling to extricate myself from the situation. The dream made perfect sense to me then.

In “Over My Head” the bride is personalized, floating, presumably dead, in a sea filled with jellyfish-the only creature we don’t overfish, and the one most likely to survive in warming seas. What’s drowned is not the feminine divine, it’s the role of bride, the innocence, the white dress, the expectations. In Freudian dream interpretation the ocean is a symbol for deep emotion. The bride is “over her head” in love? Climate change? Both? I feel like I’m over my head, and sometimes the feeling is so overwhelming it does feel like drowning. I am that bride. I hope all will identify at some level with me.”

Simon Weir
Sensual Ontographic Assemblage (Portrait of My Wife)
New South Wales, Australia

In dreams, parts of ourselves, pieces of our bodies or aspects of our psyches, sometimes appear with extraordinary autonomy and independence, our hands appear to have a mind of their own, or our legs walk us where they want to go, and animals speak to us with their silent stares, chairs appear to harbour secret desires. In this painting, a person appears as an assemblage of independent creatures and objects, some rational and some irrational, some belonging to the space of the room, others seemingly bringing their own space with them. Hence a tension emerges between the independent parts and the whole assembled person, or in Freudian terms, between the conscious ego and the unconscous id.

Simon Hafele
The Hive
Ladis, Tirol

Steven Reinhart
The Race
Pauls Valley, OK

This 1,500 foot tall rock/mountain (Shiprock, New Mexico) entered my dreams after a recent visit. My dream showed Shiprock racing through the desert at a high rate of speed. I used the thunderhead cloud (subtle profile of an Indian head) and the downpour to create a ships bow breaking through a wave. In addition to the downpour, I added clouds on a upward angle to mimic the “engine and movement” of the “ship”. I then added a group of horses in the foreground to set the scale of the entire piece. The orange (filtered sunlight) is in the shape of a track/road in which the horses are running on.

Steven Kenny
The Lighthouse
Check, VA

There was a terrible storm brewing far out to sea in the middle of the night. Only the stars were visible. Suddenly, a bright light appeared in the darkness. It was a brick lighthouse built on solid rock being battered by enormous, crashing waves driven by fierce winds. The upper half of the lighthouse became the figure of a gray-haired woman holding a brilliant lantern with her outstretched arm. She pointed the way toward something unseen while seagulls and whales headed in that direction. The feeling was one of hope amidst danger.

Teresa Kaufman
Surreal Sunset
Portland, OR

Dreams of a blazing sky sunset. The trees are so green they glitter in areas. It’s so hot the rocks are melting and flowing like creamy brown rivers.
All fused glass.

Teresa Mandala
Gaia’s Embrace
St. Petersburg, FL

Being in nature has always given me an overwhelming feeling of peace. Even in moments when I encounter an animal.

When I was going through my divorce with an abusive ex I would hike or bike the trails near our apartments after work every night. This trail would go on for many miles and connected to several large parks. One evening I encountered a buck that grunted at me several times to warn me not to get close. He had to of been 10 feet away. Even in that moment I felt grounded and peaceful even though I was scared. I paused and realized a doe and fawn were near by. I said a loud, I meant no harm, and walked away.

Later that night I dreamt about the buck and received messages of how to hold healthier boundaries with others. Those messages transformed my life and brought me much peace.

I receive a lot of different messages from nature, I believe we all do. We just have to awaken to being present enough to receive them.

This piece was made in homage to my dear friend the buck. I’m forever grateful for running past him on that path.

Theo Polymorphos
Halcyon Gaze
Melbourne, FL

During a difficult time in my life, I had the following dream. Orpheus led me to a lake at the edge of a forest, where kingfishers were fishing by the light of the moon. The moonlight reflecting on the ripples of water indicated to the kingfishers where to dive for fish. Orpheus pointed at the scene and said, “Do that.” Having puzzled over the dream’s meaning, I decided to explore it further through active imagination. I visualized myself in a tree at the edge of the water, assuming the shape of a kingfisher. I dove into the water, and encountered a multi-headed hydra. After a great struggle between kingfisher and hydra, I eventually emerged victorious… This painting is my attempt to depict this mysterious sequence of events in dream and imagination.

Veronika Weberová
Memory of a dream
Bratislava, Slovenská republika

As a teacher, I created a surrealist play for my students. They randomly chose three different unrelated words and then used them to create one image. In doing so, they figured I should try it too, but with ten words. The resulting picture was created by combining the draw lots words and how they came together in my half-asleep mind. The open book has mountains with clouds on its spine. On it is a teapot with an octopus that has a wing as part of the teapot. A jellyfish-shaped flower grows from a coffee cup and a fish swims in the background. The painting is done using line hatching, which is what I work with. The layers of lines create the artwork. The image is better seen from a distance and fades away up close. It is complemented by a pasted abstract painting, created with the artist’s modified ebru technique (painting on the water surface).

Perhaps the stories we dream and forget upon waking remain floating in the transcendent. They are lost stories that occasionally someone “”captures”” in the form of inspiration and brings them to life in the form of a work of art. This is my story of a never-written book of human stories lost in dreams.”

Vlasta Smola
Soul To Take
Acrylic on Linen,
18″ x 24″
Largo, FL

Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my Soul to keep; If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my Soul to take…. This is a famous spiritual gem whose origins are obscure. The most convincing theory about its origin, “Matthew, Mark, Luke and John” was once the best known prayer in England, used more often than the Lord’s Prayer. It was called the “White Paternoster.”

Raven was viewed by ancient Greeks as a psychopomp which is a creature whose responsibility is to escort newly diseased souls from earth to the afterlife. The funerary theme is emphasized by the white poppies which in Greek and Roman myths are used as offerings to and remembrance of the dead.

Zorica Nikić
Everlasting Love
Belgrade, Zemun

Artwork entitled “Everlasting Love” was made in the combined technique. These are collage and tempera. I think collage is the most suitable for showing dreams, fantasy, surreal…As the title suggest, its about love stuff. Love often exist, although it is untouchable. It seems that the longer this untouchability lasts, the longer this love lasts.
It appears in thoughts, in outlines in dreams.