When you know something beautiful will be gone soon, witnessing it is so much more impactful. The Impressionists knew this, so they worked to capture fleeting moments, gone by the time they had finished painting. The Bakery’s March exhibition, a collaborative mural entitled “Your Dream World: An Atlanta Vision Board,” was just as ephemeral and brilliant, as it was painted entirely over at its conclusion.
“Your Dream World,” was essentially what its title describes. The exhibition, which was open Feb. 25 to Feb. 28, was a call for local artists to collaborate on a mural in The Bakery’s gallery space that envisions their dream worlds and helps them manifest these worlds into the future.
The Bakery, an Atlanta-based artist collective, released an open call asking artists to write out their vision of a dream world, and then picked 14 Atlanta creatives with very disparate styles and experiences to represent these worlds. The 14 artists were each given a section of the crisp white gallery walls and were asked to paint directly on the wall to create their worlds. Amanda Norris, the program administrator, explained that many of the working artists had never painted directly on a wall before as they typically do not create murals. I would never have detected this lack of experience — the layout, perspective and color saturation of each section of the mural was adept and appeared faithful to the artists’ individual styles. With everything from cartoon-inspired spirit realms to naturalist koi fish, this collective mural was truly a journey for the eyes.
The artists’ dream worlds seemed to manifest similar concepts and celebrate similar hopes for the future. Many of the artists used the human form to envision the potential of humans to create a more equitable, hopeful future. With female forms growing out of the soil to a human nervous system connecting the words “question” and “answer,” The Bakery’s artworks examined how humans see ourselves in dreams. The mural asked the artists to reflect on their past and present selves in order to envision the future, and I believe that allowed for a great variety of exploration and allowed me, as a fellow dreamer and human, to connect to these dreams.
My personal highlight of the exhibition was meeting one of the contributing artists, Reinilda Blair, an emerging artist originally from the Dominican Republic now based in Atlanta. Blair said she started by outlining her work on Procreate, which helps her plot the perspective of the artwork. She then worked tirelessly in 5-hour segments to paint the physical mural on the gallery wall. Blair listened to music to concentrate and she diligently painted to translate her dream and passion; the wall transformed from plain white into her magical world.
A full moon illuminates two parallel realms, that of the spirit and that of the human, each connected by pale bridges that float over a twisting, shimmering river. The spirit world is free-flowing and amorphous, painted rainbow colors, which Blair said are her favorites to use. There’s an air of mystery and peace, allowing the rich indefinite forms to meld into what appears to be a nebulous, glowing harmonious community. Blair hopes to connect to these worlds not only in her dream, but in her everyday life, as she reads tarot cards and auras, and uses crystals.
Listening to Blair, immersing myself in artistic dream worlds the length of my body and discussing the meanings of these mural sections with my friends, were all made more meaningful by the exhibit’s ephemerality. Since “Your Dream World”’s closure on Feb. 28, the mural has been painted over with a fresh clean coat of white paint to reset the gallery walls, completely obliterating the artwork and leaving only vestiges in our memories and camera rolls. Transience made this exhibit so tangible and bittersweet for viewers, as each curving brushstroke, splash of color and written word would eventually be removed from the physical space we stood in together, living forever only in our minds.
I am a major proponent of momentary, short-lived art — it underscores the significance placed upon the present moment. Treating every work I encounter as existing only in that very moment allows me to fully appreciate the artwork and value the artist’s commitment to curate an experience for the viewer. When exploring an artwork, ask yourself: how would you look at it differently if you could never see it again? The answer to this question reveals so much more than if you merely assume the artwork’s permanence.
