Schiff’s playful and even humorous paintings depict fantastical creatures and strange landscapes—seeming like representations of dreams, or quotidian experiences distorted by unconscious impressions. The artist, a doodler since childhood, works from small notebook sketches that he brings to fuller realization in the process of painting. Schiff’s haunting iconography recalls the symbolism of Arnold Böcklin, the fairylands of Leonora Carrington, and the alienation and anxiety of Edvard Munch.