About this work

Born under the sign of the dragon myself, I have always been fascinated by these mythical creatures. Part of the Japanese cultural mythology for hundreds of years, dragons represent balance, freedom, and good fortune.

Golden dragons correlate to powerful sun gods. Much like bronze dragons, they have sturdy, strong exteriors. Illumination and revelation lie at the heart of a gold dragon. Gold dragons symbolize prosperity and wealth.

To recreate the scales of the golden dragon we meticulously placed hundreds of gold leaf squares on the body-painted skin of the model. We used red accents on the nails and eyes to create contrast with the black and gold color scheme.

While looking at the results of the photo shoot, with our model still in the water, she seemed to be floating in space. It was then that I got the idea to title this artwork Cosmic Dream.