"I painted “Sleep to Dream” while immersed in Fiona Apple’s song whose entire world seems to be built from shadows and fire. Her voice moves like brushed velvet—smooth and luxurious on the surface, yet charged with an undercurrent of defiance that keeps catching the light in dark, glinting edges. Beneath her vocals, the brooding piano chords, hypnotic bassline, and smoky, shuffling drums create a nocturnal pulse that feels almost tidal. The song doesn’t hurry; it rolls in like a cool fog, gathering force, thickening with intent. To translate that atmosphere, I built the surface with thick mediums, pouring and pulling them so the pigments could float, drift, and pool like something alive. The interference and reflux pigments shift between blues, violets, and rose tones depending on the light and the angle—so the painting feels as if it’s breathing, changing, aware. In some places the colors glimmer softly, and in others they flare sharply, the way her lyrics cut through the haze with sudden clarity. Because of MS and CRPS, I paint entirely with my hands. I dragged my fingertips through the wet mediums, letting each gesture echo the music’s slow-burning resolve. The textures rise and collapse like quiet emotional tectonics, the kind you feel before you understand. “Sleep to Dream” became a place where I could stay suspended inside that tension—where sound and color merged, and where, for a while, I completely dissolved into the movement of the piece itself."

- Shana Stern

Prints are produced on demand on stretched canvas, acrylic plexi, or giclee fine art paper in a variety of sizes here in the United States.

Contact ArtLifting for larger size options.