“ABOUT METASYMBOLISM”…
“Metasymbolism” is a term I use to refer to the language of the unconscious mind. The unconscious mind is a non-verbal, intuitive, creative form of intelligence. The unconscious mind thinks and communicates in symbols. The unconscious can be thought of as having three basic aspects – the personal unconscious, the collective unconscious and the Self. Over the course of my thirty-five year journey as an artist, I have become intimately acquainted with an aspect of the collective unconscious that I refer to as “the indigenous soul”. As an archetype of the collective unconscious, the indigenous soul is common to every human being. As a collective structure the indigenous soul is not subject to the experience of separation from the broad base of the unconscious that typically characterizes the modern conscious mind, or ego. Qualitatively, the unity consciousness of the indigenous soul translates into an experience of connection to both our inner and outer world. The indigenous soul does not suffer from a sense of alienation from divinity, ie; the Self, or nature. Inner and outer worlds are experienced as a cohesive whole. Religion, as a mediated means of connecting with divinity, and science, as a limited materialistic means to understand the outer world, function as incomplete substitutes for the cohesive perspective of the indigenous soul.
The separation from the indigenous soul, and the unconscious in general, occurs very gradually over time through the acquisition of language upon which rest the complex conceptual structures of rational thought. In most people rational thought overrides the primary structures and operations of a natural form of intelligence inherent in the indigenous soul. Given the right conditions, rectifying this condition generally becomes possible for adults in midlife and beyond. ‘Individuation’ is the term Carl Jung used to refer to this mid-life process of reintegration with aspects of the unconscious. As a temporary process of “regression in the service of transcendence”, individuation does not ultimately regress us to a prior primitive state. It does not negate language nor the linguistically based capacity for rational thought. It simply reorients the individual back to the natural pole of psychic dominance within the unconscious and all of its inherent potentials. Healing never takes anything from us. It simply restores wholeness. Nature does the rest.
This painting entitled, “Thinking Caps”, symbolizes the confounding of natural intelligence through language and the over reliance upon rational thought which characterizes modernity. The theme of the indigenous soul appears periodically and spontaneously in my work as I continue along in my own healing process. According to Jung, at the outset of each new developmental phase a symbol emerges in the form of dreams, imagination or art that signifies the nature of unconscious content emerging for reintegration. The unconscious is parsimonious in its communication. Volumes can be written about the subject of natural vs artificial forms of intelligence and yet simple images such as the ones contained in this painting say it all.
An interesting side note…
I think there can be little doubt that the work of artist Jean Michel Basquiat was a derivative of the indigenous soul and an expression of his personal struggles to reconnect with this aspect of himself. Written language fills his imagery, I believe, as a representation of the struggle between language and natural/intuitive/creative intelligence…
- Denise Marts, Redmond, Washington, 2023
section of “THINKING CAPS”
“THINKING CAPS”, 48″ X 48″, mixed acrylic media and paper on canvas, Denise C. Marts, 2023, all rights reserved
MARTS MODERN 