Dara Theodora is a Portland, Oregon-based painter who works primarily in hand-mixed egg tempera and oil.

Drawing on mythology, folklore, literature, and personal symbolism, she paints uncanny figures and creatures in dreamlike, often contradictory worlds. Dara's paintings reflect the anxieties and absurdities of modern life by transforming them into something symbolic and often strange.

Through sancai-inspired dripping and pareidolia, she lets colors and textures run together to create unexpected forms, allowing images to emerge intuitively.

She is drawn to the ways reality slips into the surreal, and how imagined worlds can offer both a reflection of our own world and an escape from it.

Her work can be found at daratheodora.com.