This dream collage was inspired by 2 childhood dreams or nightmares really. It consists of images cut out from magazines and a photo I took of the page with the bear cut out laying on top of a paint-stained table at the Art Students League in New York City. The image of a woman’s face was cut from another painting I am currently working on.
As a small child I was watching a cowboy show with my father. The cowboys were sitting in the woods at night around a campfire when suddenly the glittering eyes of a grizzly bear appeared in the woods. I was so terrified I ran and hid behind my father. Every night thereafter for quite a few years as soon as the lights were out in the bedroom, a big dark wood chest in my room immediately turned into a grizzly bear and I lay under the covers in terror clutching my stuffed dog. The adult face and over sized baby’s feet represent the dreamer as an adult who never forgot the dream and the stuffed dog represents the things children cling to for protection. I spent a lot of time in Coney Island as a child and also had a recurring dream of being knocked down by a giant wave and laying in the sand watching the water arc over me at which point I usually woke up. In this painting the wave is hurtling the bear forward over me, representing all the terrors of children. The painted table under the cut out bear represents the power of art to transform these experiences and the cityscape and outdoor scene highlight the imagination of a child who actually lived in Brooklyn and would be unlikely to see a grizzly probably ever in her life!
Dream collage by Ellen Chadwick, 11″x8″, 2020, in collection of the artist.