Falling Asleep
This piece came to me during the early months of the pandemic. The feelings of restlessness and anxiety engulfed much of my waking and sleeping hours. I thought about that feeling of falling that one sometimes gets when they begin to dose off. The instant panic jolts you awake and like a bad dream, you feel relief when you open your eyes to being safe in bed. It was in these early months of the pandemic where the bed no longer felt safe and I created this piece. Bedtime became a place for my intrusive thoughts, concerns, and anxieties that caught up to me when the day was over and my distractions ceased. However, it’s clearly daytime in the painting. “Falling Asleep” is about never being able to escape the panic. It is a constant state of falling.