Skip to main content

Amplification.

 


Thinking about the purpose of my writing and artistic practice I would say that it is a naturally occurring form of amplification. Each time I translate a visual motif into different artwork new associations arise that amplify the visual image. Amplification was a method Carl Jung used in the interpretation of dream images. Jolande Jacobi writes that,

‘In Jung’s amplification method the various dream motifs are enriched by analogous, related images, symbols, myths, etc., which throw light on their diverse aspects and possible meanings, until their significance stands out in full clarity.’

Jolande Jacobi, The Psychology of C.G. Jung (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1973), 86.

 

Rather than the significance of the image standing out in full clarity, the amplification process occurring within my artistic practice produces a constellation of related analogies, memories and collective associations that cannot be reduced to one meaning or significance. I find it easier to interpret my dreams than to interpret the visual images haunting my artworks. In many ways this process appears to be interminable. It is failing to lay the ghosts to rest and they continue to haunt me. Perhaps these memories and associations are facets of an archetype.

Jung suggests that amplification naturally occurs in series of dreams,

‘… the dream-motifs always return after certain intervals to definite forms, whose characteristic it is to define a centre. And as a matter of fact, the whole process revolves around a central point or some arrangement around a centre, which may in certain circumstances appear even in the initial dreams. As manifestations of unconscious processes the dreams circulate or circumambulate round the centre, drawing closer to it as the amplifications increase in distinctness and scope.’

C.G. Jung, Psychology and Alchemy, trans. R.F.C. Hull (London: Routledge, 1993), 289.

 

The central point around which the amplification process within my artistic practice circulates is the original image translated into an artwork many years ago. I have always felt that my artistic process occurs in a state of waking dreaming, the resulting artworks often seem uncanny, both familiar and unfamiliar.

In order to try and understand each visual motif and the related mental associations I began to write denkbilder or thought-images. These short blocks of text are an ideal writing form. I do not have to worry about narrative sequence or the inevitable descent into nonsense. Anything longer and my texts self-destruct. I have begun to post pages of these thought-images. Denkbilder also embody a form of visual thinking, they are the ideal writing form for a visual thinker. Perhaps this is why I am drawn to dreams and their interpretation as both involve a form of visual thinking.

Many years ago, one of my closest friends informed me that I had the developmental age of a four-year-old. At the time she was teaching Psychology and Sociology, so I asked her why she thought this. She told me it was because I think in images. At the time I dismissed her comment as an attempt to provoke a reaction.  Provoking a reaction involved the utilisation of a grain or seed of truth that would either irritate the other person or grow out of control in their psyche. This was a mind game we both found highly amusing. I think it is safe to say that the seed of truth planted in my psyche by my friend has grown, blossomed and borne fruit.

I thought the creation of a copy book was practical and rational but now I am wondering if my artistic process will overtake my rational mind and the images will sprout copies like weeds. On the first page there is a Moon. Somewhere I read that souls of the departed are drawn up to the moon like drops of morning dew. The fact is that I am drawing what I come across but somehow these things take on a particular significance. Perhaps I should burn the copy book before it takes on a life of its own.

Below are three more images from the copy book I am working on.










Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Unconscious, the Collective Unconscious and Symbols.

  Jung observed that the idea of the unconscious presented by Carus and von Hartman disappeared without a trace, it then re-emerged in medical psychology. [1] He noted that at first, the unconscious denoted forgotten or repressed contents of the psyche. [2] Jung suggested that it was the study of dreams that allowed psychologists to study the unconscious aspects of conscious events, ‘As a general rule, the unconscious aspect of any event is revealed to us in dreams, where it appears not as a rational thought but as a symbolic image.’ [3] Jung then noted that, ‘It is on such evidence that psychologists assume the existence of an unconscious psyche – though many scientists and philosophers deny its existence. They argue naively that such an assumption implies the existence of two “subjects,” or (to put it in a common phrase) two personalities within the same individual. But that is exactly what it does imply – quite correctly.’ [4] Sigmund Freud, despite being aware of the m...
Post a Comment
Read more

Speed Artists Way.

  A few weeks ago, I bought myself a copy of The Artists Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity by Julia Cameron. I had a copy many years ago and remembered that it helped me to start making art again in my mid-twenties. I got a portfolio together and went to university. I re-read the book in two days but oddly, I didn’t remember any of it. I thought that I had better go back through it and do the tasks at the end of each section. It’s meant to be a twelve-step program done over twelve weeks, but I did speed Artists Way in a week. I had been feeling blocked. I just didn’t feel like making any art, so I came across the book at the right time. The two main tasks in The Artists Way are morning pages and artists dates. The morning pages consist of three pages of stream of consciousness writing done in the morning. I’ve adopted this but mine are afternoon or evening pages. I have enough trouble trying to get body and soul together in the morning without adding morning pages and...
Post a Comment
Read more

Metallic Watercolours.

  I don’t really understand my newfound fascination with watercolours. I have realised that there are a lot of interesting watercolour paints out there such as the Daniel Smith PrimaTek and A. Gallo watercolours which I have been hankering after. One of the points Julia Cameron makes in The Artists Way is that artists often deny themselves luxuries – things that artists like. We will spend money on other things but things that make the inner artist happy are deemed too frivolous. I decided that I will set up a fund that I will put a bit of money in every so often. I will then use this to buy the materials I really want, such as a set of A. Gallo watercolours or a nice pad of Arches or Saunders Waterford paper. This week I had a little tree production line going of trees in metallic watercolour on black watercolour postcards. They have the ghostly quality I mentioned before but this doesn’t come across in photographs. I remain frustrated by the whole tree carry on. I get the q...
Post a Comment
Read more