Do You Dream In Color?

Radioactive Cats © Sandy Skoglund

When I remember my dreams, they look a lot like the photography of Sandy Skoglund. Skoglund has been installing and documenting her conceptual ideas for four decades. Although her work mixes nature and artifice, it does so without the use of Photoshop. In a 2008 interview, she explains the symbiosis of the the two realities: “A world without artificial enhancement is unimaginable, and harshly limited to raw nature by itself without human intervention.”

The Sock Situation © Sandy Skoglund

Skoglund uses common forms like socks (above) food, and animals to relate to the viewer. Many of my favorites from within her expansive archives feature cats, foxes and dogs that have been sculpted and painted. She says: “The animal presence to me is the link between ourselves and the natural world. You look at a dog, and the dog looks back at us. During that moment, we know that we’re not the only consciousness in the universe.”

Fox Games © Sandy Skoglund

When asked how our increasingly digital world affects her concepts and procures, Skoglund responded: “Digital media is the means and not the end. The end is still the same: to make each other more comfortable in a world that does not make much sense. And we make each other feel more comfortable by sharing our discomfort.”

Here here to that! Click through for more of Sandy Skoglund’s colorful photos. Then go click around her website until it’s dark outside and you don’t know where the day went.