Ruby Stroebel

Assimilation

Stone lithograph (2024)

15” x 45”

$700

Artist Statement:     

My work explores the enigmatic and often unsettling experiences that arise through dreams and the subconscious mind. Despite the nonsensical and nonlinear aspects of dreams, I capture specific imagery to pull a fragment of the amalgamation my subconscious created into reality. I focus upon moments that while fleeting, last in emotional weight, encapsulated by the pull of something beautiful that hovers on the edge of darkness. My subconscious creates its own symbolism and speaks through imagery, and anything can confront me in my dreams in any way my mind seems fit. Dreams are a bridge between conscious and subconscious realms, revealing raw and undiscovered emotions, fears, and desires through sensations and imagery. Delicate attention to texture, pattern, and detail allow me to capture my confrontation of chaotic but beautiful experiences of creatures, realms, and entities. Seemingly normal imagery is in harmony with surreal, impossible elements as I experiment with unknown depths and spaces, attempting to capture where light and shadow play in a simultaneously magical and menacing manner. The comfortable and beautiful quality of what once was familiar is infused with the unfamiliar, an aura of mystery, becoming inviting yet intimidating and holding a beauty that both comforts and warns.  

Follow Ruby Stroebel on Instagram: @ruby.stroebel