Artist Spotlight: Sarah Merkel

Sarah Merkel is a senior art student at Uconn. She is currently working on her senior project before graduation. While the project itself may be finished, or close to finished, Sarah says this is a project she wants to keep up for the rest of her life.
Sarah has chosen to keep an illustrated journal of her dreams. Her idea was inspired by the concept of lucid dreaming; she wants to recognize her own dreaming patterns so that she can recognize when she’s dreaming. When you realize you are dreaming, you then have the power to become lucid. I’ve read  myself that once you’re aware, if you look at your hands you are then in full control of your dream. Anyway, when she refers to her “dreaming patterns” she means certain triggers that would help her realize she was not actually awake. A good trigger for her is the “sycamore house” which is what she always calls the house she grew up in during her dreams.
Sarah says another inspiration for her dream journal is the fact that she believes dreams are beyond just nonsense. She says “dreams are the subconscious minds’ way of communicating to the conscious mind and it does this using symbols. I learn things from my dreams all the time and even more from going back and looking at old dreams.” She is inspired as an artist by what she learns from her old dreams, and says that a dream journal would be a great source of inspiration for any artist, or any person really.
She painted and drew her illustrations on water color paper. Long River Review is actually interested in posting her entire journal on the website, so if you like what you see, stay tuned for more!!