ARCHETYPES 

Archetypes - unconscious, inherited traits and instincts that motivate human behavior and also prove useful in the analysis of culture and art,ultimately helping us make sense of the world around us. 

This collection is vaguely inspired by Carl Gustav Jung’s 12 archetypes that make up different ways of being and exist as cultural symbols and images present in the collective unconscious: Sage, Innocent, Explorer, Ruler, Creator, Caregiver, Magician, Hero, Outlaw, Lover, Jester, and Everyman.

The titles of the paintings correspond to the twelve typecasts proposed by Jung, but are not featured next to the images as to not suggest my own perception and interpretation of the archetypes. The portraits can also apply to more than one archetype. I’m interested to see how each of the paintings will portray a different character to different people then they might to me. I am hoping to explore this way the idea of subjective/objective symbols and interpretations and the relationship between the artist - artwork - viewer.

I am interested in exploring the idea that art, by existing in both the artist’s and in the viewer’s worlds, mediates between the “I” and the “other”. The artist, from their individuality creates artwork that acts directly on the viewer, who according to their perception will experience the ideas in a way unique to them - and in this way complete the process  - making the viewers a part of the creation.

We each see things in metaphor, and it is interesting to examine how objective or subjective the metaphors really are. Common themes/patterns/motifs connect us together, but may also lead to stereotypification when viewed in a narrow way. The Archetypes used in this painting series are somewhat fluid in meaning, overlapping and merging into one another from which emerge images as artistic symbols and motifs. Can the symbols be universal when they are neither fully generalizable nor specific? The fascinating idea of the objective versus subjective interpretation is what gave an inspiration for this body of work. My theory being that the opposites we find in the symbolic archetypes as well as our vast interpretations of them can mediate the opposites and differences in ourselves and each other. Their infinite variety gives unity to our individuality.