Isabel Doherty

Daydreaming lingers in the in-between. Ambiguous, invisible, and fleeting. In a world of hustle culture, ideas grow in our minds, hidden, before they’re ready. Could the pressure to constantly produce interrupt ideas before they’re even fully formed?

This project explores my relationship with daydreaming, and the guilt and comfort that come with it. A place of refuge, rumination, and endless possibility. Yet the varying reasons for dissociation can cause inner turmoil. Where does drifting into thought turn into escapism? This is a question I sit with.

Working across illustration, animation, and painting, I aim to surface this rarely discussed universal experience. A hand-drawn animation documents my daily train commute - recurring, constant, predictable. Its views and announcements form the backdrop to my reverie. Alongside this, a personal written piece illustrated on a paper sculpture, and a series of paintings representing brain activity during daydreaming.