Cross in Red | 18x24” | Oil on canvas | 2018

“The ancient alchemical symbol known as the self, is the circle in the square or the square in the circle. This symbol goes right back into the pre-history of man, and is found all over the earth.” It shows a center and a periphery, usually with the additional feature of a square, cross, or some other representation of quaternity, and seeks to embrace a sense of wholeness.

When there is chaos or disorder in a man’s mind, then this symbol can appear as a mandala in a dream or in nature or in fantastical drawings and provide a compensatory archetype to bring order – showing the possibility of order. The center of the mandala is the center of the whole personality. It is not the ego, that is a fragment only.” And “The debt we owe to the play of imagination is incalculable.” — Carl Jung