Arlene Ladell Hayes provides the viewer with a transitory experience, visually and emotionally. Her imagery is filled with intense colors and strong lines, merging the conscious and the subconscious, evoking a sense of wonderment. Drawing on both Eastern and Western traditions, she conveys a universal influence. Using calligraphic brush strokes, she accentuates the dreamlike nature of her subjects. Her Star Traveler series is in fact derived solely from her dream states.

Arlene Describes her first dream state sighting... “Departing Taos, New Mexico on a Greyhound bus, the sun had gone down several hours earlier, I received my first real live vision at the age of fourteen. Relaxed enough, a big soft seat, my mind begins to slow down enough to rest. Not being awake nor asleep, the space between is when it began.

A creature appeared, walking across in front of me, like an unexpected movie just starting with no warning. He had large black eyes, an overly large head with a slit for a mouth. His limbs were long and slim, and the hands had long fingers. He was white, which made his eyes stand out. He was moving along at a slow, lumbering pace. Turning his head he looked straight at me. Oh no. I knew that he saw me, and I knew that he knew that I saw him. Seeing him was something which was not to have taken place, but it did. He didn’t appear angry, just somewhat annoyed that I had seen him. Then slowly turning his head back, looking ahead, he continued to walk.

My body came flying out of my seat, jarring me back to the reality of a dark bus with fellow passengers starring at me with distrust. Realizing no one else had seen him was enough for me to keep my mind completely alert with no possibility of rest for the remainder of the ride. Growing up in small towns in the Texas Panhandle, I had never had such experiences and now knew something that can’t be explained.

On my return home, I made my first sketch of him. To this day, I remember the feeling of fear and wonder which came on that ride. It has been part of my work in one way or another for years.”