Dreamlike 

Joseph Lorusso painted 'Dreamlike' with oils, and here we see a nude woman deep in sleep, her body a landscape of soft forms. The floral pattern on the bedspread carries us back to ancient motifs symbolizing fertility and the cyclical nature of life. Consider the pose: arms bent, head resting. Echoes of the sleeping Ariadne abandoned by Theseus, a recurring motif throughout history! Though in Lorusso's Dreamlike, we aren't in classical antiquity; instead, the woman appears serene, not tormented. This evokes the same deep-seated human desire for respite and escape. The hazy, dreamlike quality Lorusso achieves transcends the physical realm. It touches on the collective unconscious, where archetypes and primal emotions reside. The act of sleeping is universal, a shared human experience. By tapping into this primordial state, Lorusso accesses something deeply resonant within us, reflecting how the past is constantly reinterpreted.