This week we welcome Ronnie Ahlborn, a digital artist. She attended Dartmouth College with a focus on studio art and human-centered design. At the end of her college studies, she was awarded the prestigious Perspectives on Design Award, given to a graduating senior by the Studio Art Department.
“My work attempts to capture the sensation of dreaming, calling into question what is real and what is imagined. Dreams are only experienced by the dreamer; they are deeply personal and yet so intangible. There is no taking pictures, and there is no way to really describe it to anyone. Dreams are so much more than plot; they are emotional, visual, heartfelt experiences that feel just as real as real life,” she writes.
“To truly enter the state of mind of a dreamer, every morning when I wake up, I immediately roll over and speak my dream into my phone. Usually I’m still half asleep, so when I’m explaining the dream it all still makes sense to me, and I’m not passing any judgment on what I saw or felt; it’s still my reality.
Listening back to my voice recordings later in the day allows me to recall and re-live the dream from an entirely new perspective. I take what I hear my dream-self say and transcribe it, translate the visuals I remember into quick drawings, and make notes to myself based on what I hear. This is where I get all my source material.
I have decided to pursue this work through a digital medium because of the life-like, yet uncanny, feeling 3D graphics provide. This format also allows for repetition of motifs throughout my work, just like a recurring dream. The main colors used are colors that are not found in nature to constantly remind the viewer that this is a different universe entirely, where nothing makes sense, and yet it is hard to question what is in front of you.“
See more of Ahlborn’s work on her website and Instagram.
See more of our Artist of the Week features here.
