Artist Bio:Lauren Adams studied Art Education and painting at The University of South Carolina. After college, she taught art in public school for 20 years in Tennessee. Her painting studies were anchored in Flemish and Dutch archival oil techniques. Adams continues to use these historic techniques and processes, though her subjects are often untraditional. Her current sister series, Nocturnal Landscapes and The Dream Vortex, Adams explores the nature of what a landscape can define and the landscape of the dream realm. Through her Nocturnal Landscape series, she works from photos that loved ones send her of the place they rested moments before the photo was taken. She then hones into an area in the composition that speaks to her of the dream realm. In The Dream Vortex series, she takes areas of the photos and repeats them to create a kaleidoscope composition that pulls the viewer through the dream vortex onto the other side of consciousness. Artist Statement: In my series, Nocturnal Landscapes, I explore the physical marks our bodies have left in our place of rest after our journey to the dream realm. During sleep, we leave consciousness and travel into (hypnogogia) and out of (hypnopompia) a dream state while our physical bodies remain on Earth where we lay. Upon waking, some may find they leave a frenzied mountainscape created in their bedding, while another's mark may reveal a setting of rolling hills from their peaceful nocturnal recharge.My paintings are based on snapshots, sent to me from other people, that are taken of the place they rested just moments before. The compositions created and the colors chosen often reflect my imaginative interpretation. Without a recognizable person, these nocturnal landscapes highlight the universal connection between all humans in the cycle of waking and rest, without markers that may indicate differences in gender, class, race, etc.Nocturnal Landscapes visually encapsulate the universal mystery and wonder of the places we go during the act of sleep. These landscapes are an homage to the amazing dream realm travelled during slumber and the traces of which are left in the physical world.