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"Ancient Wisdom - Rivers of Fire" "Inner Family Portrait (at the beach)" "Contemplating the Unconscious" |
1998, oil on canvas - 36x54" The rock of reality I am setting on is small and getting smaller. It is (as all rocks are) very hard and uncomfortable. I find it almost impossible to relax in this reality. I try to look and act relaxed, but my body is rigid. My unconscious is like a vast dark sea, but there are areas within this sea that are quite beautiful. After I finished this painting, I read a quote from C. G. Jung. He wrote, “The doctor is well aware that the patient needs an island and would be lost without it. It serves as a refuge for his consciousness and as the last stronghold against the threatening embrace of the unconscious. The same is true of the normal person’s taboo regions which psychology must not touch. But since no war was ever won on the defensive, one must, in order to terminate hostilities, open negotiations with the enemy and see what his terms really are. Such is the intention of the doctor who volunteers to act as a mediator…. He knows that the island is a bit cramped and that on it is pretty meager and plagued with all sorts of imaginary wants because too much life has been left outside, and that as a result a terrifying monster is created, or rather is roused out of its slumbers. He also knows that this seemingly alarming animal stands in everything that the island lacks.” After I read that, I felt—Wow! It was a revelation of the mystery that connects us all. It was as thou I read what Jung wrote and painted it, or Jung saw my painting and then wrote about it, but of course neither was the case. By the way, if you look long enough you will see the monsters face.
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