Dreamlike stories

2023 — 2026
Life is a series of choices.
Even the most difficult and frightening moments can become a stepping stone to success.

This project is a journey into a dream world that transforms into painterly parables, where the unconscious reveals truths about self-discovery, life, and success. These paintings are reflections of different dreams, an invitation to look into the depths of one’s unconscious, where fears, ambitions, and the magic of transformation intertwine. The viewer is encouraged to see their own struggle with obstacles, their dreams, and moments of insight.

In each story, the hero faces choices, temptations, chaos, illusions, and inner conflicts. They are captured at decisive
moments, when a choice determines everything. Their path is a process of transformation, where the struggle with doubts and external challenges turns into a victory over oneself. They find strength in persistence and faith in their own potential.

Dreams are messages from the unconscious that guide us through chaos toward a conscious life. Each painting is a key to self-knowledge, a metaphor for our struggle with limitations, the search for inspiration, and the transformation of dreams into reality.

Dreamlike stories

2023 — 2026

Dreamlike stories

2023 — 2026
Madame
2025 / Oil on canvas, 150х100 cm
Life is a series of choices.
Even the most difficult and frightening moments can become a stepping stone to success.

This project is a journey into a dream world that transforms into painterly parables, where the unconscious reveals truths about self-discovery, life, and success. These paintings are reflections of different dreams, an invitation to look into the depths of one’s unconscious, where fears, ambitions, and the magic of transformation intertwine. The viewer is encouraged to see their own struggle with obstacles, their dreams, and moments of insight.

In each story, the hero faces choices, temptations, chaos, illusions, and inner conflicts. They are captured at decisive
moments, when a choice determines everything. Their path is a process of transformation, where the struggle with doubts and external challenges turns into a victory over oneself. They find strength in persistence and faith in their own potential.

Dreams are messages from the unconscious that guide us through chaos toward a conscious life. Each painting is a key to self-knowledge, a metaphor for our struggle with limitations, the search for inspiration, and the transformation of dreams into reality.
Life is a series of choices.
Even the most difficult and frightening moments can become a stepping stone to success.

This project is a journey into a dream world that transforms into painterly parables, where the unconscious reveals truths about self-discovery, life, and success. These paintings are reflections of different dreams, an invitation to look into the depths of one’s unconscious, where fears, ambitions, and the magic of transformation intertwine. The viewer is encouraged to see their own struggle with obstacles, their dreams, and moments of insight.

In each story, the hero faces choices, temptations, chaos, illusions, and inner conflicts. They are captured at decisive
moments, when a choice determines everything. Their path is a process of transformation, where the struggle with doubts and external challenges turns into a victory over oneself. They find strength in persistence and faith in their own potential.

Dreams are messages from the unconscious that guide us through chaos toward a conscious life. Each painting is a key to self-knowledge, a metaphor for our struggle with limitations, the search for inspiration, and the transformation of dreams into reality.
Wisdom has always been with me
2024 / Oil on canvas, 125х90 cm
Yana Sokalski, "Dreamlike stories" Art Project, Wisdom has always been with me 2024 / Oil on canvas, 125х90 cm
The Sound of Another March
2024 / Oil on canvas, 150х100 cm
Yana Sokalski, "Dreamlike stories" Art Project, The Sound of Another March 2024 / Oil on canvas, 150х100 cm
Focus: Horsepower
2026 / Oil on canvas, 150х90 cm
Yana Sokalski, "Dreamlike stories" Art Project, Focus: Horsepower 2026 / Oil on canvas, 150х90 cm
Description
The diptych Focus: Horsepower explores the choice between two ways of being in this world.

In the upper panel, a woman on a white horse gazes beyond the canvas—toward an invisible future that is the true purpose of her movement. Her figure and the horse, filling nearly the entire space, embody horsepower not as brute force, but as harnessed will—energy ready to create from scratch.

Below, as if in another dimension, we see only the edge of her boot and monkeys dancing around a fire. They have chosen cozy, predictable stability, trapping themselves in a circle of imitation and conformity. Their fire warms but never leads forward, while the rider carries her own inner light.

This painting is not just a contrast but a reminder: being a source is harder than warming yourself by someone else’s flame—yet only that way can you keep moving when everything around you burns to the ground.
The temple’s rise
2026 / Oil on canvas, 100x100 cm
Yana Sokalski, "Dreamlike stories" Art Project, The temple’s rise 2026 / Oil on canvas, 100x100 cm
Front Row Ticket
2025 / Oil on canvas, 80x80 cm
Yana Sokalski, "Dreamlike stories" Art Project, Front Row Ticket 2025 / Oil on canvas, 80x80 cm
Description
In this strange court, where the attributes of mortality coexist with the banality of everyday life, there is no longer any place for horror. And even the guide between the worlds wears on his feet a reflection of earthly frivolity.
No Mountain, No Burrow
2025 / Oil on canvas, 90x80 cm
Yana Sokalski, "Dreamlike stories" Art Project, No Mountain, No Burrow 2025 / Oil on canvas, 90x80 cm
A strange painting without a title, No. 1
2025 / Oil on canvas, 40х30 cm
Rich Eyes
2024 / Oil on canvas, 100х80 cm
Yana Sokalski, "Dreamlike stories" Art Project, Rich Eyes 2024 / Oil on canvas, 100х80 cm
The Lover Is Immortal
2025 / Oil on canvas, 110x80 cm
Yana Sokalski, "Dreamlike stories" Art Project, The Lover Is Immortal 2025 / Oil on canvas, 110x80 cm
Guiding the Rocket
2025 / Oil on canvas, 140×110 cm
Yana Sokalski, "Dreamlike stories" Art Project, Guiding the Rocket 2025 / Oil on canvas, 140×110 cm
Description
The painting "Guiding the Rocket" unfolds a story of archetypal liberation.
The phallic image of the rocket—a classic symbol of active creative principle and social ambition—has lost its allure; it stands frozen, calling out from its dark interior. Yet, the heroine no longer heeds the imperative of "eternal creation." Her body, relaxed in the pose of a smoker against the backdrop of this technological giant, becomes a manifesto of newfound sovereignty. This is the moment the anima (the feminine soul) emerges from the control of the animus (the masculine rational spirit), personified by the machine.

From an art historical perspective, the work reinterprets the genre of Socialist Realism: the place ofçheroic labor is taken by a meditative pause, and heroism yields to ontological detachment. The girl's stillness is not inaction, but a higher form of controlling reality. It suggests that only by stepping outside the mechanism can one become its true center of command. The guidance of the rocket is achieved not through direct control, but through the attainment of inner silence—which is presented as the authentic source of creative power.
Purity of Intentions and Generosity of the Soul
2024 / Oil on canvas, 120×100 cm
Yana Sokalski, "Dreamlike stories" Art Project, Purity of Intentions and Generosity of the Soul 2024 / Oil on canvas, 120×100 cm
Everything Is Made of Magic and Bricks
2024 / Oil on canvas, 40×30 cm
Description
The painting’s space is divided into two parts: the cows and the bull, shown from behind and representing the abandoned partners of the main characters, mark a completed chapter that has been left behind and no longer defines the protagonists' path. The little girl with a braid acts as a guide between worlds—her braid, like an antenna, picking up signals of fate from outer space—while the boy, with his active, "radiant" gaze, materializes the desired reality, illuminating the door that leads to their shared future. The numbered doors in the transparent wall serve as a metaphor for an archive of life scenarios, where each number represents a possible destiny, and the pink path flowing from beneath the characters' feet points to the true way, made visible through their intention.

In this world, brick ceases to be mere material—it becomes a quantum of reality, a "frozen magic" that forms the foundation of a civilization built not on bare mechanics, but on the power of imagination and will. The union of the girl (cosmic intuition) and the boy (active, projective thought) gives birth to the very magic of manifestation from which this new world is woven.
An Extra Zero
2024 / Oil on canvas, 170x110 cm
Madam sat and triumphed over the heat and discomfort
2024 / Oil on canvas, 90×125 cm
Invisible power
2024 / Oil on canvas, 170x110 cm
Description
The storyline seems to invite us to the beginning of a grand journey filled with magic and hidden possibilities. At the center is a heroine on a black horse, wearing a magnetic vest that radiates an invisible force, allowing her to control her totem — a cat, a symbol of intuition and an internal compass.
On the background, mystical fish-dragons hover, representing luck that accompanies bold actions, pointing the way to success and abundance for those who pay attention to their messages. A shimmering portal in the corner leads to a new reality — a path to a renewed self, a transition into a world where internal transformations and changes are possible.

This piece prompts reflection on the role of intuition and foresight on our journey, as well as the significance of inner awareness. It affirms that the magic around us is nothing more than a reflection of our willingness to perceive it. The portal symbolizes the ability to change, offering each person the opportunity to shape their reality and turn personal illusions into tools for growth.
She knows no fear and sings
2024 / Oil on canvas, 120x120 cm
Transition
2023 / Oil on canvas, 200x180 cm
Description
The mind inevitably resists transition, for future experience is a challenge to past habits and beliefs, to all that we have held as true and right. The meaning we have latched onto points to an uncharted path. We advance through an impenetrable forest; step by step, new trails open before us, and signs appear to guide our way. The runes depicted here are the embodiment of courage and audacity, the main partners on the path to our goals. They become talismans that help us move forward despite all difficulties and obstacles.