Years of Sleep
A series by Reut Dafna
I’ve always enjoyed drawing people in a state of sleep, as their bodies rest, their souls free of earthly emotions. The tenderness that emanates from their peacefulness is mesmerizing.
Years of Sleep is a series of paintings that resulted from my attempt to hold on to those rare and magical moments of my children while sleeping. Eilon and Nitzan are two beautiful, active, intelligent children, and my greatest inspiration. They skirt around me, running and jumping, enveloping me with a presence that exudes innocence and sensitivity.
In my profound realistic paintings, they lie serenely as they float through open space; placid, relaxed, safe, and at peace.
During their waking moments, of which there are many, they have begun to display a steady interest in drawing, for which the walls of our home provide an excellent surface. So I prepared some paints and invited them into my own creations, where they made their personal mark. It was the most natural thing to do.
This wonderful combination of art gave birth to a unique series: their own work accompanies my soft powdered charcoal paintings. Side by side, our art shares the paper surface, where my children emerge as sharp, colorful, carefree; from place where judgement and self-criticism cease.
“Reut Dafna creates her art by means of a unique technique distinguished by paintbrush drawings using charcoal powder.
Her work is the result of a process utilizing slow movement and patience.
The powder is especially fine and allows for a gradual build-up of layers until a realistic picture emerges from what was once an abstract sketch.
In the exhibition, Years of Sleep, the artist takes photographs of her children, with the intention of capturing the moment they fall asleep, and then adding further impressions to their serene faces and the way their bodies rest. The image undergoes an artistic transformation once the original background is replaced with an open, white space.
The images lie on beds that vanish as they evaporate into the gleaming, white emptiness, leaving a sleeping child hovering in the air.
The sense of floating emphasizes the feeling of transition between the mirror of reality and the realm of imagination. Dafna recreates the sleeping images to portray something imaginary, which disperses time.
Some artworks have the added element of her children’s drawings. The combination creates a bridging effect, and emphasizes the contrast between quiet, clean, and organized art and intense expressiveness with no defined direction.
The subject of sleep expresses the desire to escape to a dream world, yet it also serves as a place of rest for the body, where it can remain isolated and free from any pain.
Reut Dafna is a graduate of the Tel-Hai Arts Institute. She is a painter and teacher of art, which includes painting and drawing. Her works have been displayed in various exhibitions nationwide, and can also be found among the art of private collections”.