THE ROLE OF SYMBOLISM IN ART
Mystery is a central factor of all works of art. It is not to be confused with mystification which is an act of deception; I am referring to the mystery that shrouds the archetypal library of our collective psych that emanates through the spirit of the natural world and which provides art with depth and meaning. It is not a mystery to be unravelled in a rational way but rather something to become part of; for where there is mystery there is imagination and imagination is the creative essence from which the entire universe evolves.
It is this sense of mystery that draws us into a work of art, making us feel that we have been there before; an awareness that we are in the presence of something meaningful but whose signification eludes conscious recognition. Interaction of this kind, taking place on both a conscious and an unconscious level, is essential if we are to take the work into ourselves. This can only happen if it conveys some aspect of the fundamental nature common to all humanity.
For the artist it is vital to keep this in mind at all moments during the process of creation. On a conscious level it is relatively straightforward: it is enough to remain within the universal theme of birth, life and death and the vast spectrum of human emotion; but on a subconscious level it is a little less evident. In order to provoke a non conscious response from the onlooker we need to appeal to the unfathomable cellars of the psych where are gathered the entire repertoire of Man's experience. One way to achieve this is through symbolism.
Symbolism is the key to the archetypes contained within our collective memory. It is the means by which we are able to unveil the more obscure aspects of our psychic heritage that lie buried in the very distant past, perhaps as far back as Man's first attempt to communicate his fascination for the natural world. By expressing his vision of life as a constant celebration of being he laid the archaic ground of the psych that lives on in us today, even though we live in what has now become a desacralized society.
Many aspects of nature were attributed magical properties by our ancestors. Signs engraved on rocks suggesting the earth's energy or graphical representations of animals on the walls of caves were more than mere evocations, they were iconographic invocations of the multiple manifestations of the earth spirit on whose munificence their survival depended. These images are our common heritage; they carry hidden meanings that speak directly to our subconscious. They are both the mystery and the meaning.
Primitive writings were also to evolve out of these magical pictograms illustrating the many aspects of nature, which developed gradually into representations of themselves as coded forms. For those instructed in the art of interpretation, meanings could be read from the signs that were more than just representation through words: each sign being a reciprocal of an archetype.
Thus transmission by means of a symbolic language, regardless of whether it be through signs or through images, is a flexible process that conveys not only information on a rational level but also provides an intuitive understanding that is entirely personal as it involves the active participation of each individual at his/her own particular level of consciousness
It is for this reason that I tend to use symbolic imagery and fundamental geometric forms in my paintings in an attempt to arouse, in the viewer, an intuitive perception of the archetypes that lie deep below everyday consciousness. The experience can only be of an individual nature as by delving into the reservoir of our collective consciousness and projecting back into the painting the data processed by the onlooker's own unique experience of life, he/she completes the work, proposed by the artist, in an entirely personal manner.
