My artwork focuses on my nightmares and the imagery I create from my imagination. I found comfort in drawing these scenes into my sketchbook and became inspired to paint them onto canvas. I particularly use rabbits as the main figure in my artwork because they have an innocent and delicate nature to them. Rabbits can be fearsome when being placed into an uncomfortable setting. I want my work to draw people in with the scenes I create and the pastel colors I use, but still leave an unsettling feeling. I use pastel colors in order to invoke a sweet or cute feeling to my paintings, making them more enticing. I typically create digital compositional studies before I start painting on the actual canvas itself. Although my work seems as though it’s telling a story, there really is none. My paintings are for the viewer to decide on how to interpret them, and to be in a state of wonder of what is happening.

Shayla Dang was born in California, and moved to the University of Washington to pursue her art education in Painting and Drawing. Art has always been Shayla’s way of comfort when facing any type of hardship in life. Prior to university, Shayla self-taught herself how to draw on digital programs through videos from the internet, and never painted on canvas before. During Shayla’s studies, she originally wanted to focus her artwork on the beauty and life origins of flowers. She wasn’t satisfied with just painting flowers, and turned towards her inspirations towards the dark and morbid concepts of her imagination. She focuses more on making the viewer feel attracted to her paintings with pastel colors, yet thrown back based on the scene that’s been set. Shayla’s current work is inspired from her nightmares and the contrast between innocence and morbidness.