Passages
As a client, I sometimes dealt with multiple aspects of a complex trauma which was really a lengthy series of traumas. As a therapist, one of the trauma workshops I attended at the C.G. Jung Foundation was for 5 days, with a different specialist each day. One of the days the presenter and some attendees spoke about their traumas in the context of the modality under discussion. She then asked us to think of something (I cannot remember what). Instead, in the stimulating environment, when I closed my eyes to reflect, my mind’s eye immediately combined 2 visuals - a recurrent scene from my trauma and one of my Passage paintings. I instantly understood the link, the reason I have been fascinated by and almost compelled to draw, paint and etch long hallways, often with steps, leading to a lit area.
This is not to say my Passages are solely or even primarily about an aspect of my personal traumas. I have taken this unconscious template and used it to describe relationships - ancient to modern, human to earth - as well as movement towards the unknown.
Once I realized the time connection between contemporary and youth, I renewed my efforts to process it through different modalities. (Though I have made no new formal Passage images in a while, I continued to sketch them often.)
The image here was started spontaneously soon after the conference and took quite a while to finalize, using the time and art process to process. I cannot say it will be my last, but for now it feels like I have, indeed, completed a passage.