Mysterium Encounter: Jung at the Rubin

I just returned from a New York pilgrimage to get an audience with the actual object: The Red Book of C.G. Jung. Every Wednesday, the Rubin Museum turns a page , so I got to see two actual spreads. Plates 104-105 and 106-107.  Stunning! The majority of the exhibition includes high-resolution facsimiles, pencil sketches, and a few other original paintings in the style of the Book’s plates.  I was quite taken with two small chalk pastel landscapes.  Jung was a very talented artist of high dexterity. He possessed an extraordinary ability to capture light.

It may take the rest of my life to get through the Red Book. Then, maybe, I will understand something of it, and therefore of myself. Jung’s ability to connect to and describe the inner workings of the soul are unparalleled. Reading his biography, Memories, Dreams, Reflections, I somehow felt less alone in the world by learning of his visions and how he used the mandala as a tool for decoding his inner experience.

Mysterious Creative Powers— a small painting from the exhibition, in the style of the Red Book illuminations

The exhibition is quite small, but The Red Book is displayed center stage, behind bullet-proof glass. The lighting is low, glowing. It definitely has a talismanic quality. I just stood in front of it wondering what hubris it takes to commission a book like this in the first place?

“Yes, I’d like to order a really, really big, 500-page, 100% cotton paper, hand-bound, leather book. And while you’re at it, let’s make that RED leather. Oh, and can you embellish it with lots of gold foil stamping, and why not add a little rose border on the edges too. “

Now imagine— you have the giant leather tome with its gold embossing and thick vanilla pages— already a masterpiece— in front of you, and you have to start drawing and painting on the pristine pages. Page One— Deep breath. Begin…

What many people do not realize is that the book is carefully planned. It is not a “stream of consciousness” effort. The texts were written in several smaller Black Books, then transcribed, carefully edited, and finally, typed up with carbon copies over a period of many years.  Jung worked on the Red Book at night after his daily tasks and family responsibilities were complete.

A sketch of Jung's early mandala "Systema Munditotius" from Black Book 5

After years of  preparation and pencil sketches, the gouache and calligraphy pens were employed. It took him 16 years to complete the final illuminated manuscript. On the scale of the Book of Kells, Jung’s Red Book work is absolutely precise—an illuminated manuscript for the new millenium.  You can purchase a reproduction of the Red Book through Amazon and Barnes and Noble, but alas, it is temporarily out of stock.

Here is a Review from today’s New York Times, with some good images of the exhibition and examples from the Book.

Exhibition Review | ‘The Red Book of C. G. Jung: Creation of a New Cosmology’

Jung’s Inner Universe, Writ Large

By Edward Rothstein

Published: December 12, 2009

A new exhibition at the Rubin Museum of Art offers a public look at a private chronicle the psychologist Carl G. Jung kept for 16 years in the early 20th century.

Killer Mandala App

Create your own perfect realm. It’s easy! No scary meditation required!

The Rubin Museum has created a really great interactive device that helps you envision your own two-dimensional mandalic universe.

Click. Print. Practice non-attachment. It’s the least you can do.

Click here to begin

Here’s a Perfect Realm I created:

Art of the Spirit Exhibition Opens Dec. 1

I’m honored to announce that my geometric mosaic mandala titled  ”Diamond Heart” was selected for the exhibition Art of the Spirit, juried by architect, artist and author, Anthony Lawlor.

Mr. Lawlor has written two books on the home as havens of inspiration and renewal, and maintains an interesting blog exploring how imagination influences what we build in nature.

O’Hanlon Center for the Arts, a magical venue tucked into the redwood forest, hosts the annual show as a celebration of arts in the spiritual world, including spiritual politics, spiritual ecology, or spiritual expression. The idea of spirit can take many forms and Lawlor has selected a broad range of interpretations for the show, which includes around 50 pieces of art, curated from over 80 submissions.

THE DEETS:

exhibition image art by Dick O'Hanlon

Opening Reception Tuesday, Dec. 1, 6 – 8 PM

O’Hanlon Center for the Arts

616 Throckmorton Avenue

Mill Valley, CA 94941

Artists Roundtable Dialogue. Tuesday Dec. 1, 4 – 6 PM

Learn more about the works, exhibiting artists and Tony Lawlor will be present and the discussion is open to the public.

TIP: stop for a little snack after the opening at Small Shed Flatbread in Mill Valley:  Cozy and delicious!

Show runs Dec. 1 – 22, 2009

Gallery hours: Tue. – Sat., 10 am -  2 PM

more info 415-388-4331
megan@ohanloncenter.org
www.ohanloncenter.org

“Module One” Watercolor

Here’s a watercolor I made over the past 10 days while in a yoga teacher training. Every day after hours of energy work and yoga, I would work on it, so this one’s super charged. Soften your eyes, gaze, and  let it take you on your own journey.

The Tao of Wu

In his new book, Hip-Hop Artist the RZA provides creative fodder for seekers around the world: “Any way you can reach self-enlightenment or self-worth works. Many great men have left paths for us. In the end, we are all searching for the same thing. We’re just taking different routes to the same location.” — the RZA.

C.G. Jung’s Red Book: There it is!

It seems to glow doesn’t it? C. G. Jung (1875-1961), was the first Westerner to adapt the word “mandala” and intuitively grasp the deeper meaning of the ritual. He used the form in his analysis of the unconscious and theory of archetypes. The Red Book contains many of his mandala drawings that helped him to interpret his own chaotic states of mind…

Piece by Piece Puts It Together

A micro-finance program takes on LA’s urban poverty with glittering mosaics and Mind’s Eye mandalas!

Secret Windows Geometry

Michael Schneider’s new workbook explores geometric harmony in nature, art and technology

Free Bird

Sarah Ann Greene’s intricate freehand mandalas mesmerize the eye. No tools, folks…

Gregangelo’s Egyptian Temple

What happens when you run away and join the circus…fer real.

Where Does the Time Go?

Big Computers+Big Telescopes+Big Minds x Impressive Astronomical Discovery = A Double Einstein Ring ~This phenomenon has never been observed before! Black Holes R US!

POLL-best day for classes

		
some subjects we discuss in my classes