Erin Langley
Medium: Tempera and Oil Pastel on Paper 27” x 39.5”
Date Created: 2006
"Black Sea" reflects one of the first ancestral connections I made in the dream world. In an out-of-body experience, I find myself in a boat. I yell to a nearby man, “Where are we?” He says, “Look around you. This is the Black Sea.” Years later I learned of my Ukrainian ancestors who dwelled near the Black Sea.
This painting elicits endless shapes and creatures from chaotic landscapes as homage to the natural world, fraught with creatures seen and unseen. Every space is alive and accounted for. By rendering imaginary beings, I make them real and recognize a dimension of existence that many people do not access except through their dreams--the shifting and changing reality that is as dependent upon the dreamer as it is independent and alive on its own terms.
Date of dream: 2001
Title of Work: World of the Fifth Hoop
Medium: Mixed Media 11" x 14"
Date Created: 2006
World of the Fifth Hoop pays tribute to the whale and bird messengers who came into my dreams and to the Aleut elder, Ilarion Merculieff, who helped me understand them. The title refers to the prophecy of the Fifth Hoop in which humans from the Four Directions come together to share the sacred and secret teachings once more. Read the prophecy here: http://www.viewzone.com/alaskan.html
Date of dreams: fall, 2005
Title of Work: Balmy Bend
Medium: Pastel on Paper 8.5" x 11:
Date Created: 2006
I painted Balmy Bend when I dreamed of an African youth who must leave his homeland for the west. Tribal elders explained that all first born sons should go get a western education because times have changed. He will have to leave everything behind—his family, his language, his land, everything he knows. Yet in this painting, the boy's connection with his homeland remains intact.
Date of dream: fall 2005
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