Lucid Dreamers Daughter 2019

Jana Brike’s painting might have come into being through layers of delicate decisions. In “Lucid Dreamers Daughter,” a woman lies cradled between two deer as butterflies flit around them in a field of pink flowers. I wonder what it was like to make this painting. Were all these figures in the artist's mind at once, or did they emerge in stages? Was it emotionally difficult to paint such an otherworldly scene? The paint application is relatively smooth, allowing the details of the figures to come forward. It feels like she’s working with a rich artistic inheritance, particularly the Pre-Raphaelites, who also conjured dreamlike worlds. The deer are like figures from a fairy tale, but their antlers and snouts are solid and real. This painting encourages us to consider how artists borrow, exchange, and transform ideas across time. It's a reminder that painting embraces ambiguity, inviting us to interpret and discover new meanings.