Dream In Color Abstract | Mixed Media Project

For my current mixed media project, I envisioned a female who dreams in vivid colors. Working with collages, I often discover the most unique photos. Often, my subject matter deals with females as I feel they are the most interesting in terms of expression.

But the concept of expressions and dreaming in color go deeper.

Did you know that in the mid 20th century, it was widely believed that we could only dream in black and white. A study in 1950 concluded only twenty-nine percent (29%) of participants reported having dreams with color. Then, in 2008, another study concluded that individuals' dreams contained a small amount of color.

So what happened to alter our dreams and liven them up?

Research suggests that the invention of the television was the culprit. The current theory analyzing how our dreams changed is that techni-colored TV became the norm in millions of households. As people became exposed to colorful media, the images in our brains also began to change.

Are your dreams brightly scattered across the scene, often with flamboyant tones that follow you into the next day and beyond? You can envision the details of the dreams and the colors that were present.

Let’s delve deeper into the psychology behind how and why we dream of color.

Research suggests that the dominance of one color in dreams is thought to be an indication of a strong emotional state. So if there is a certain shade that appears in dreams, the possibility exists that there could be an underlying message the subconscious is trying to convey.

Dreams that contain light and vibrant colors are normally associated with positive emotions of hope, safety and happiness. On the opposite end of the colour scale, dark colors may represent negative emotions such as fear, horror and envy. ¹

^Source

For this design, I decided not to include a nature scene, as I often do. This time, the female image has her eyes closed as if in a deep slumber. She's surrounded by various objects of all shapes and colors.

Below are my creation steps:

I utilized Canva to blend the different type images in which I began with a blank, white canvas, adding layers of elements, removing backgrounds, resizing, colorizing, detaching elements from their backgrounds, and repositioning items as needed.

To achieve the positioning of the various fractals, I used diagonal frames to achieve the abstract look, then inserted the fractals inside.

Below are the images I included in my collage that added to the beauty of the scene to create the abstract look. Several images are pure fractals I created in the advanced fractal rendering program, Apophysis 7X. The purple rose I retrieved from the stable diffusion program, StarryAI.

^{Female in purple ~ Pure Fractal titled "Obelisk" ~ Pure Fractal titled "Almost Butterfly ~ Pure Fractal titled "Weeds" ~ Pure Fractal titled "Clover In Purple and Pink" ~ Pure Fractal titled "Gold Leaf"]() ~ Pure Fractal titled "Swirling Hole Disk in Blue" ~ Stable Diffusion Purple Rose}