The Snake
Beneath the Surface
Not having interest in religion myself, I found it strange that I was seeking to make allegorical works, just like religion does: visual reminders of a deeper meaning in myself, others and existence. But it was something that my secular, materialist and rational upbringing was sceptical of.Beneath the Surface
This resistance to allegory was strong as I am suspicious of organised religion, largely because I wanted to make my own rules. But that changed when I started reading the psychoanalysis of C.G. Jung. He showed how the pictorial world of religious art is not an invention of religion, but something that taps into a much older source in the human spirit: The Collective Unconscious. The collective unconscious refers to a layer of the unconscious mind that is shared among all human beings, regardless of culture or individual experience. It contains universal psychological structures that Jung called archetypes, such as the Mother Image.