Jacqueline Stendel
3rd year, Art Education Major
Ascension
48” x 72”
oil paint on raw canvas
2016
While sleepwalking, the body controls as the mind recedes. In these steps, made without intent, these steps between consciousness and the unconscious, the body leaves the mind behind to rest and dream of other selves. No longer does the body belong to the mind, and no longer is the mind delimited by its place within the human form. The self becomes many, and the multiple universes proposed in a dream state unfold. This painting, which emerges from my experience of sleepwalking and dreaming, imagines a scene in which I find myself in this place of fragmentation. Losing my sense of belonging to my body, I separate in the dark hours of the night and become many.