For most of her adult life, artist Mary Jhun has drawn inspiration from a distinct muse: fractured silhouettes of girls, embellished with surreal details. Her paintings have been a way to process trauma, loneliness and despair, while also serving as a fascinating feedback loop into and out of her vivid dream life. She experiences the "girls" in dreams as she paints them, using these visions as fuel for future works.

But when she started using a CPAP machine to treat sleep apnea, her dreams vanished overnight.

"What do we choose? Do we choose the thing that kind of ignites our creativity or our health? And I feel like a lot of artists go through that all the time, no matter what the topic is," Mary said.

Photos: A glimpse into Mary Jhun's studio and signature style

Now, in a new solo exhibition at the Oceanside Museum of Art, Mary has found her way back — to both her girls and her dreams — by incorporating surreal CPAP machinery into her paintings and tricking her body to dream again. Yet a question lingers: What toll does creativity take on our physical, emotional and relational health?

Guest:

• Mary Jhun, artist

Watch: Mary Jhun creates intricate Etch-A-Sketch drawing of her "girls" on classic toy

Mary Jhun's creative touchpoints:

• Cafe Ghibli playlist
• "Kiki's Delivery Service"
• " Manifesto of Surrealism" by André Breton
•  Sigmund Freud
• Carl Jung

Mentioned in this episode:

• Snow White | Disney fairytale princess known for her woodland friends, kindness and cottagecore charm
• Studio Ghibli | Beloved Japanese animation studio behind dreamy, detailed films like "Totoro" and "Spirited Away"
• "In Losing Sleep, I Painted" | Mary Jhun's 2025 exhibit at the Oceanside Museum of Art exploring the tension between health and creativity through her signature "girls" figures
• Etch-A-Sketch | Red-framed drawing toy repurposed by Mary Jhun as a surprising tool for emotional expression
•  "Nothing Lasts Forever" | 2022 gallery show centered on impermanence, featuring 20 Etch-A-Sketch works by Mary Jhun created in a one week and sold with the reminder: once it's gone, it's gone
• Games of Berkeley | Longtime Bay Area shop packed with puzzles, strategy games, novelties and nostalgic treasures
• "Dune" | Frank Herbert's sci-fi epic of sand, prophecy and power set on the desert planet of Arrakis

Sources:

• Café Table with Absinthe (Van Gogh Museum Amsterdam)
• "F. Scott Fitzgerald's life was a study in destructive alcoholism" (Dr. Howard Markel, PBS News, 2017)
• Frida Kahlo & Diego Rivera | Romance & Heartbreak (Rise Art, 2019)
• Sleep apnea (Mayo Clinic)
• Early or premature menopause (Office on Women's Health)
• Surrealism and Dreams (MoMA)
• "Sleep technique used by Salvador Dalí really works" (Yasemin Saplakoglu, Live Science, 2021)
• "Sleep onset is a creative sweet spot" (Célia Lacaux, Thomas Andrillon, Céleste Bastoul, Yannis Idir, Alexandrine Fonteix-Galet, Isabelle Arnulf and Delphine Oudiette, Science Advances, 2021)
• "Targeted dream incubation at sleep onset increases post-sleep creative performance" (Adam Haar Horowitz, Kathleen Esfahany, Tomás Vega Gálvez, Pattie Maes and Robert Stickgold, Scientific Reports, 2023)
• "Relationship between Lucid Dreaming, Creativity and Dream Characteristics" (Nicolas Zink, International Journal of Dream Research, 2013)