A Midsummer Nights Dream

“A Midsummer Night’s Dream Series Artist Statement:

“The course of true love never did run smooth”, Shakespeare tells us, and here on a midsummer night, in a dark forest where lovers might find delight, mayhem occurs!

Kings, queens, noble youth, commoners, no one is safe from the tricks and pranks of a mischievous sprite – Magic elixirs, sap of forbidden flower, and then – couples tangle and untangle, a queen kisses the head of an ass, fairies appear and dance… It becomes clear that romantic love is linked with magic, enchantment, altered states, madness even!

And because dawn will soon break, lovers awake chastened, spells are undone, lessons have been learned: “Oh what fools these mortals be!”

An artist, too, enters that forest of the night, prey to an altered state (not even requiring a magic elixir) to dwell outside reality. I too voyage to a land of enchantment, and it is that which I would share with you, in my language of sublime gems, of slithering forms, of magic jewels. Yes: opals like lightning, diamonds blacker than the night, the sustained hope of emeralds, and many marvels to discover as my new series opens, Saturday December 6, from 2 to 7pm, in a joyous party.

-Eve Alfillé, November 2025