Home

Beautiful Nightmares

image by Veronica V. Jones

Lydia Burris

A lanky man with long black hair and white face makeup.
A woman in a blouse and vest calmly wrestles with nightmare creatures.
A hairless man with a spiny head and long fingers stands contemplatively.

Have you ever woken a fitful sleep, uncertain if you had just escaped a nightmare’s icy grip, or had been rudely snatched from a beautiful dream? Lydia Burris‘s ghostly portraits and shifting imagery may leave you similarly conflicted.

Her heavily textured, yet gracefully flowing forms seem composed entirely of delusion and fantasy, trapped on canvas by the weight of her brush or perhaps the strength of her will alone. Through Ms. Burris’ works, we catch noisy, fractured glimpses of alien landscapes with oddly familiar features, and mundane environs made bizarre by unwanted, uncomfortable insights.

The most challenging and rewarding of Lydia’s works remind us of the bestial, nightmarish qualities within our own psyches that threaten to ravage our most cherished dreams. If she knows the ultimate outcome of this eternal struggle, she is keeping it to herself.

Written by in August of 2009. Last edited September 2014.

Related Features

Doug Kovacs

A goatish man with large horns plays the pipes. A female form composed of frost, bark and leaves stands in a winter scene. A woman dressed in black is deep in thought, surrounded by strange, spectral figures.

Alice Duke

Collaborative Fairy Scroll Benefit Auction

A wizened Gnome and thoughtful sprite. Fairy kisses. Playful sprites and a slightly sinister faun. A charging beast and a brownie under a toadstool.

Miguel Coimbra

A woman with long brown hair and pointy ears crouches on a branch in a deep forest setting. A man in full balistic armor wields a large rifle. An attractive woman in a tank-top rests, her natural and cybernetic arms crossed. An armored warrior fends off a lion in a dust-shrouded arena.

Chris Seaman

A woman in an ornate dress dances with a large bestial man. A regal tiger stands in noble clothing and wearing an ornate sword. A large fairy with blue hair cradles a wooden boy in her lap. A green frog with an ornate white wig stands in a blue dress. A young woman in plate armor hods a green apple, with small men surrounding her.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *