Dreaming in Colour: Olya Schmidt on Translating the Subconscious

When I started exploring the big canvases and had signed up for Art Vancouver, and that's an exhibit and you have to present the things, I decided to explore that dream I've had, that time-shifting, monumental inspiration, unlocking something deeper within me.

I decided to paint that dream.

So I have referred to my art journal, sorry, my travel journal, I have those two things too.

Dream travel.

My

dream journal, yes.

I have tons of journals too.

And

the notes that I have taken with what I have seen in the dream because I had to sketch it like, you know, we forget quite often.

And just describe what I have seen, what I have experienced.

And then I write.

I also take it further.

I like to know what my subconscious is telling me and through various years of study and finding good resources.

I like to write down, you know, like space.

This is what that means.

If you see that just to know what, what me is telling me.

And so I decided to paint that.

And then each canvas was dedicated to like a part of the dream because the dream kept shifting and changing.

I didn't want to all load it in the one.

It was kind of like a, It's like a short story.

If you come to my booth, you would see like the beginning, the middle end.

I actually didn't quite get to the end last year.

People were asking like, what about this part? I said, this was in January and the Art Vancouver was in the end of April.

So I was painting as fast as I could.

And yes, this year there's a continuation and the finality of that dream.