Something happened when you saw this. What was it?
Abstract Inquiry · 2023
Awakening a Cold Dream
Available · in the studio, Phoenix
The cold dream deciding to wake — the inquiry into what dreams become when they're no longer protecting us.
Cold Dream (2023) is a painting caught between clarity and fog — where the subconscious leaves a trace but refuses a narrative. Part of the Hand-painted Photography Collection, this 48 x 48 inch mixed media work fuses photographic realism with painted ambiguity to create an experience that feels both intimate and distant.
Built atop a black-and-white photo, the image has been veiled with layers of misty paint — soft whites, icy grays, and shadows of pale blue. Portions of the image peek through but remain indistinct, like fragments of a dream you can’t quite piece together upon waking.
I created Cold Dream during a time when my thoughts felt quiet but dense — not heavy, just hidden. The work emerged from that silence, and I resisted the urge to explain. Dreams don’t explain themselves. They linger. They stain.
This painting shares a tonal atmosphere with Bill Viola, particularly his slowed, meditative video works where time stretches and emotion thickens. Like Viola, I wanted to create a space that asks for stillness — not for understanding, but for surrender.
Cold Dream isn’t haunting. It’s hushed. It asks nothing of you but your attention. It holds you like fog — lightly, without edges.
As part of the Hand-painted Photography Collection, this painting reflects how memory and identity are layered. Not fixed. Not sharp. But always present.
Where to see it. In person at RituStudio, Phoenix, by appointment. Represented by Jarrow & Goodman, Los Angeles.
The space it needs
- Wall
- At least 5 ft wide
- Ceiling
- 8 ft or more
- Light
- Natural light preferred — the resin catches it and the color shifts through the day
- Daylight
- The deep and lilac grays hold steady in daylight, and the single muted red keeps its place as the only warm note. West sun warms that red a little; otherwise placement near glass is easy.
Lives best in
Living room 5/5
Awakening a Cold Dream earns its full score here because the 4×4 canvas commands a living room wall without overwhelming it, and the slow drift of lilac gray into soft white gives a shared space something to return to across hours.
Hotel lobby 4/5
The muted red accent and fog-like dissolution of form read well at lobby scale and pace, though the work's hushed emotional register may be too inward for a space that must hold strangers passing without pause.
Details
- Size
- 4 × 4 ft (W × H)
- Medium
- Acrylic on canvas
- Finish
- Epoxy over acrylic. The resin lifts the color off the canvas and holds it forward, so the surface deepens as the light moves across the room.
- Year
- 2023
- Collection
- Abstract Inquiry
- Palette
- Deep Gray · Lilac Gray · Soft White · Muted Red
- Weight
- About 22 lb
- Ready
- In the studio; delivery 8–12 weeks
Its ArtGram
ArtGram.Sprig
- Texture2
- Form5
- Colour range2
- Palette4.7
- Contrast3.8
- Abstraction Quotient-4.5
