Olivia Krampien

Olivia Krampien is a student-artist working on exploring the settings developed within the subconscious mind. Through dream analysis and careful rendering, she brings eerie yet beautiful settings to life. Facing these settings has brought harsh realities to the attention of the artist, forcing her to look deeper into the cause and meaning behind these dreams.

Mental health is something that affects nearly 1 in 5 Canadians, according to the Canadian Mental Health Association. For those who experience struggles with anxiety, it is not uncommon to have this anxiety work its way into the unconscious mind, causing disturbing dreams and nightmares. Olivia’s works focus on the settings in which these nightmares took place. Repetitious dreams of running, hiding, and escaping often resulted in the cold sweat of an early morning panic. Cold metallic factory buildings are met with armed soldiers, isolated cabins offer no comfort or refuge.

In this series of both digital and graphite drawings, colour plays a large role in mood. Pale blues and dark hues bring an anxious atmosphere to the artist’s works, while vibrant oranges bring curiosity and moments of reassurance. The artist invites you to become aware of her process, leaving rough lines visible in a character sketch, suggesting the familiar practice of bringing graphite sketches into the digital world to be rendered. Each of the three locations, the cabin, the factory, and the beach house, explore different ways of rendering an environment to provoke an aura.

This collection of artworks will serve as a personal time capsule for the artist; a reflection on a time in which her mental state was fogged by the crippling environment she was immersed in. With her anxiety lessening, these repetitive dreams have since come to an end, making the creation of the art pieces crucial before they fade from memory with time.