Lady Night Asleep In Her Water Bed

Joy Brooks

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(b. 1988)

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LADY NIGHT ASLEEP IN HER WATER BED; 2011

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acrylic, epoxy, fish pebbles, plywood

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48 x 48 in. (121.9 x 121.9 cm)

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ARTIST STATEMENT

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This painting is an allegory painting of the night sky. The woman drifting to sleep is the personification of the night sky, but because she is asleep there is no moon. The water is where she rests when she sleeps. The idea of using water as her bed comes from the reflections of the night sky in water at night. Instead of actual reflections in the water I asserted reflections of the mind in the water. The reflections are her unseen dreams or in actuality is the world around her, seeing as the painting reflects back at the viewer a reflection of the viewer. I decided not to fill in the night sky as a woman and kept her outline feminine instead. I used colors to outline her limbs and her night gown in order to accentuate her humanistic form. Bubbles rise up around her where she moves in her sleep but not from her mouth for she needs no air to breath; there is no oxygen in space so why should she breathe.