Dream? Nightmare? Perhaps a fine blend of both. These pattern-covered, contemporary yet historical, highly narrative paintings are the work of American artist Kyla Zoe Rafert. Yes, I said paintings… hence including the closeups as proof. This is Kyla’s description of this latest body of work:

I see my current work as the truth bent to perfection. Set within a meticulously designed world of vanity, beauty, and abundant pattern, recent works evoke a carefully crafted stage rather than the happenstance of real life. Echoing fairy tales and Dutch genre paintings of the 17th century, my paintings illustrate adolescent girls and young women in scenes that play on Romantic notions such as the peril of curiosity, the potency of beauty, and the inevitable fall of innocence. Despite their childlike references however, these works are meant to embody the prophetic perspective of an adult looking backward to an overly romanticized, fictive past. As an adult, one can look longingly at this world of innocence, and whether it existed or not, they have always fallen from it: they have traded their naiveté for the role of a diviner. 

Beautiful.