“Dispersing Darkness“- At West End Gallery
People will do anything, no matter how absurd, in order to avoid facing their own souls. One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious.
― Carl Jung, Psychology and Alchemy
Well, the show is out at the West End Gallery and will be fully hung today well in advance of next Friday’s opening reception, which runs from 4-7 PM.
There is, as always, a sense of relief in having the show out of the studio but this relief is forever accompanied by a feeling of anxiety in how the work might be perceived.
I know what I see in the work, what feelings and meanings I derive from it. It is created to satisfy and reflect my emotional needs. But how others experience it is always a crapshoot because one never knows what others are seeing of themselves in the work or what they desire to see.
Some folks want things I cannot offer and I have always been okay with that. I do what I do and put it out there, warts and all.
Some folks want nothing but optimism and light. While I understand this desire and attempt to keep my work optimistic and forward looking, I have always embraced a darker undertone in my work. I think it’s because I believe we are all delicately balanced between the opposing forces of dark and light.
The world is also balanced in this way in my opinion. It’s in that area of equilibrium between the two forces that harmony and beauty appear.
I think this is what I am seeing in the new painting above, Dispersing Darkness. We sometimes get out of balance and darkness becomes dominant. The key at these moments comes in knowing that this is only a temporary condition and patiently waiting it out until light once more comes to push away the excess darkness.
Like the crow on the peak of the roof in this piece.
I see this piece in an optimistic, hopeful way but, as always, that is just my take. You will see what you need to see in it, no doubt.
As it should be.
Redtree Times 