Smoke Dreams

Swirling amorphous forms rendered in painstaking detail float up the surface of Michelle Hoffmann’s "Smoke Dreams". The meandering trails of smoke are not only realistic representations of quotidian abstract formations but also ghostly imaginings of concrete figures. To the right, a spectral female form recoils her headless body from the gaping maw of a monster. Anyone who has observed smoke leisurely travel through patches of light is familiar with this sort of illusion. Like clouds, the smoke forms apparitions that probably mirror whatever thoughts occupy us at that moment. In this way, our minds, in concert with real-world abstraction, produce phantom images and illusions that can only be comprehended through a subjective lens or the creative expression of art. Abstraction finds a home in the figurative and allows Hoffmann to convey an internal daydream that could otherwise be described but never seen by another.