Somewhere in A Dream - Acrylic on Canvas

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Alice Cao
Somewhere in A Dream - Acrylic on Canvas
2023

About the Item

Alice Cao Somewhere in A Dream acrylic on canvas 24 x 30 inches 2023 Somewhere in a dream there is a world, created not from memories or unconscious thoughts; it just happened, that’s all out of nowhere and belonging to no one. You may wander and explore, but you may never return to the same place twice. The world shifts and changes with each step you take. Don’t look back, for the world you thought is behind you is long gone. You no longer ask, Where does this journey leads me you have only just begun and will always be. Alice Cao is an interdisciplinary artist, illustrator, and educator from Surrey, Canada. She graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Art in Illustration from the Rhode Island School of Design and a Bachelor of Education (in Visual Arts) from UBC. Her work ranges from whimsical children’s illustrations and surreal paintings to dreamlike sculptures and film photography. She is inspired by her imaginative daydreams, nature walks, poems, stories, and dream journals she has written throughout the years. Alice is experimental and playful in her approach and enjoys working with a variety of mediums to discover new ways of thinking and making. She is particularly interested in watercolour due to its beautiful unpredictability and the lively ways that it moves and interacts with each other, which allows her to explore the tug-of-war between conscious control and manipulation and the act of letting feelings and intuition take over, between the comfort of predictability and the discomfort of the unknown. Alice would compare her artistic process to the way she writes a poem: There are no instructions or steps; the work unfolds and expands as it goes, like a story coming to life. Alice Cao – Artist Statement If words have colours, what colours would they have? If poetry has a shape of its own, what would it look like? When art is written into words, what stories can it tell? As an illustrator and a lover of words, I have always been interested in the intersection between writing and art-making, and how these two mediums can work together to create new meanings, narratives, and inspirations. For me, words give my intangible thoughts and feelings a voice while images give them a “body” that can be seen, felt, and experienced. When I encounter a feeling I cannot fully grasp, poetry puts my feelings to words while art gives them depth through colours, textures and forms. When small moments in life trigger my imagination, my journals and drawings preserve my ideas and bring my daydreams to life. My work shows the collision of my writing and art making practice. I use my poems and journals to guide my art creations; vice versa, I use my artwork to inspire my writings, giving them new meanings based on my interpretations. In this process, I experimented with vastly different styles and materials. Some of my work is “loud,” bold and graphic, with defined shapes and an illustrative style. Paint is applied thickly with a brush, and colours are vibrant and in high contrast, meant to evoke the viewers’ immediate response and to inspire stories and imaginations. In contrast, the other part of my work is “quiet,” soft, and abstract. Using brushes and unconventional tools such as squirt bottles, eye droppers, sponges, and my fingers, I applied diluted paint and acrylic ink to raw or specially primed canvas, creating a watercolour-like effect that allows me to play with the balance between chance and control. Guided by my poems and inner feelings, I loosely directed the paint across the canvas, allowing colours to move, overlap, and interact with each other. The unique and unpredictable effects created in this process engage me to respond intuitively, guiding my thoughts and movements in new directions. By presenting the texts and images next to each other, I hope to give the viewers a chance to view each medium separately and as a whole, welcome their interpretations and imaginations.

Creator:
Alice Cao (1997, Canadian)
Creation Year:
2023
Dimensions:
Height: 30 in (76.2 cm)Width: 30 in (76.2 cm)
Medium:
Canvas,Acrylic
Movement & Style:
Contemporary
Period:
2010-
Framing:
Framing Options Available
Condition:
Gallery Location:
Richmond, CA
Reference Number:
1stDibs: LU2218211873452