Floating heads and strange technology: Artist and designer Garret Davis captures dream logic

Garrett Davis, a graphic designer and artist based in southeast USA, isn’t trying to illustrate what dreams look like, but rather what they feel like. In his absurdist illustrations, dream logic is unhinged, lawless and alive – they’re mixed media playgrounds where characters are made out of anything, from worms to ghosts to television boxes. “Sometimes the stories don’t fully make sense, and I’m okay with that,” says Garrett. His computer is filled with unfinished works where he doesn’t force completion, but allows them to cultivate naturally over time. Combining physical and digital tools, he draws scenes with paint and crayons, scans them into editing software and transforms them into compositions, then repeats the process of printing out and scanning again to capture natural grains and textile elements. The results are immensely satisfying to look at, combining the strangeness of postmodern art and graphic design that deserves to be framed in your living room.

Drawing from the golden age of comic books, David Lynch and information in his day-to-day living, Garrett peels back human psychology through multi-layered symbology and their almost random explosions of data. “A lot of my work revolves around the human body and brain,” says Garrett. “I think those two things hold endless potential for meaningful storytelling.” Through floating heads and dream-like technological devices, the viewer is asked to remix these elements in their own mind, attempting to solve an innate puzzle that lies in all of us, and Garrett himself.