Painting dreams to visualize reality

Artist Amy McLean came up with the idea when she was pulling weeds. She thought, “I should paint people’s dreams,” and soon began painting the dreams, hopes and desires of others as well as her own.

McLean said the idea was inspired by “The Secret,” a book and DVD produced by Prime Time Productions that’s about the laws of attraction and how, with faith, prayer and positivie thinking, people’s thoughts and feelings become their reality. “I wanted to do something great for people,” McLean said. “Something that would have people’s dreams come true.”

McLean, 23, painted her dream in a work titled “Joy and Passion,” of herself and her fiancé on their wedding day. She painted “Horsetail Flats” for someone who dreamed of creating a “bed, barn and breakfast” in Oregon, and she painted “Dancing like Shakira” for a friend who desired to lose weight and have the energy to dance like the singer Shakira.

Her paintings are well on their way to becoming reality, and McLean believes it is because, as philanthropist and author W. Clement Stone said, “Whatever the mind of man can conceive, it can achieve.” McLean believes that having a painting, a solid physical vision of one’s dream, is a step toward achieving it.

McLean has been painting since she was old enough to hold a brush. Her aunt and mother taught her composition. She went on to study at Spokane Falls Community College but did not graduate; she is still young and testing the waters. She paints mostly in watercolor and is beginning to work with oil and mixed media. She works odd jobs and continues to grow as an artist.

McLean’s work is young and fresh, less realistic than it is representational of a person, place or idea. Her landscapes are reminiscent of those of folk artists who have found places in museums without the aid of years of formal education. Her work tugs at the heart with its simplicity as it comes from a deep and thoughtful place. “When I’m painting someone’s dream that’s all I’m present to, the visualization and realization of that dream,” McLean said.

McLean lives in a home on the North Side with her mother. She paints on an easel by her bed on which she dreams. Her dream is to create a life she imagines; a beautiful wedding, a solid marriage, a home of her own, and a career as an artist. “I’ll keep painting and sell my work on the side,” she said.

She wants to keep helping others realize their dreams while realizing her own and, by the year 2020, she believes that she will be a world-renowned Green Roof Landscape Designer. “I want to create sustainable designs,” she said. Her paintings are also, in a sense, sustainable designs as they keep a viewer’s dreams sustained.

McLean has shown her work at Valleyfest and at local expos and continues to learn, create and dream. “Dreams really do come true,” she said.