Since starting my masters I have known that I have wanted to concentrate on painting as well as ceramics but I haven't known how to bring the whole Transpersonal/ dream element into the painting work and tie it all together with purpose. So I've been procrastinating and working on a seascape commission for the last few weeks to keep the 'painting muscle' working. I have found that it is very much like a muscle. The more you use it the stronger it gets.
I do know that I want to include seascapes/shore-scapes in my body of work. I have been dreaming about being on a ship out at sea a fair bit and I know that this is deeply significant. (more on this later.)
Depending on where you look, it is said that the ocean is either symbolic of the Collective Unconscious,'...Thus, the ocean is equated with the collective unconscious... It is out of this collective unconsciousness, Zimmer notes, that the sun of the spirit arises.' http://www.symbolism.org/writing/books/sp/2/page5.html
... or the Unconscious,
Often in dreams, large bodies of water (oceans, lakes, pools) symbolize the unconscious. As with bodies of water, we often see the surface, but cannot easily see into the depths. Also, the vastness of the ocean symbolizes the vastness of the unconscious mind. Jung observed long ago that the unconscious mind was much vaster than the conscious portion.
http://www.briancollinson.ca/index.php/2012/11/jungian-therapy-the-meaning-of-dreams-5-water.html
I really like the following diagram and piece of text. It makes a lot of sense to me and links our conscious/ego, our personal consciousness and the collective unconscious and relates it visually to the sea with our egos as islands in the ocean of personal and collective unconscious:
'Jung was never clear about his own religious beliefs. But this unusual idea of synchronicity is easily explained by the Hindu view of reality. In the Hindu view, our individual egos are like islands in a sea: We look out at the world and each other and think we are separate entities. What we don't see is that we are connected to each other by means of the ocean floor beneath the waters.' http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/jung.html
... and the shore-break? Need to research this some more but for me, very much symbolic of the threshold/boundary between the Conscious and Unconscious. (One of the places, I dare say Hermes and his winged shoes would like to hang out as god of transitions and boundaries. Another story for another time)
So, anyway, back to the original reason I started this post.
Britta reminded me of the seascape collages I did a few years back.
She loved them as did some others... but overall the feedback I got seemed luke warm. I suppose I was disheartened as not many seemed to 'get' them so I tucked them and the technique away. But now it seems like the perfect time to resurrect them and the whole concept as reference for my oil paintings. I loved them. They really resonated for me. They were dreamlike. Shore break and rock pools have always had me entranced and combined with the other dream images, including the doorways, again suggesting transitioning from one place to another, this feels like a real possible starting point for my paintings. No better time, as this masters is about really following that which resonates, and this resonates.
And then as if icing on the cake, Paul, Britta, myself and the dogs went for a walk on the beach. I can't remember it looking so beautiful. So I snapped away and now have a whole series of stunning pictures to start this series off.
