Artist Statement
Sleep paralysis is defined as a temporary inability to move or speak while falling asleep
or upon waking.
Someone who is clairvoyant is defined as a person who claims to have a supernatural
ability to perceive events in the future or beyond normal sensory contact.
I think it is possible I lie somewhere between the two characteristics. Ever since I was a child I would have these recurring “nightmares.” I would be touched, grabbed, choked, or held down by all creatures hellish, ghoulish and angelic. There are days where I have experienced extreme symbolism within my dreams that predicts my future. For example, when I had a death in the family, I was asleep and watched the grim reaper pass me in my bed and yank on my right leg, to this day I can tell you I still get chills whenever I feel my right ankle.
​Sometimes I would remember these moments in time and other times, I would have woken up to someone comforting me as I slept through the night. My grandmother would call them “little devils” and my mother would call them messengers from heaven. I always had a tough time being Roman Catholic, so these theories have been off putting for me. Since becoming an atheist, I pressed any beliefs far from my realm of interest and trusted scientific explanations more. But more recently, these nightmares have been coming back and feel like a new level of real and horrifying something science cannot put into an equation. I never was sure how to describe these incidents until my grandmother and mom told me similar stories on how they have seen the hellish and or angelic creatures in their sleep and waking lives.
I always tried to remain indifferent to both arguments and beliefs so I decided to investigate these incidents that have happened to me by recreating these horrors and dreams for people to interpret for themselves and others.