Table of Contents
About my background
I was born and raised in Rotorua, New Zealand and spent a lot of time as a child amongst the hills, lakes and forest around that area.
I studied Engineering at the University of Canterbury and left with a Masters degree in Artificial Intelligence
I’ve worked as an engineer, software developer, business analyst, and, since 2006, as a psychotherapist and analyst, applying both a Gestalt and a Jungian perspective.
I studied art in the late 1990s first at COFA (University of NSW), leaving with a BFA, and then completing an MA (Hons) in Fine Arts from the University of Western Sydney in 2001 (thesis: An Inquiry into an Imaginal Landscape).
This thesis examined the inner experience of landscapes using the lenses of James Hillman and other contemporary thinkers. I exhibited in several solo exhibitions in the late 1990s and early 2000s. In 2015 I began to focus my attention on art-making as imaginal inquiry, and the esoteric in general, as a daily practice.
Focus
I know we must collectively find another way of engaging with this exquisite planet and this mysterious and limitless consciousness with which we are endowed, and I try to explore such a way with my psychotherapy clients.
Hermetic art and Psychotherapy
Here are two quotations from A.C. Evans that summarise an older, and for me more life enhancing, view of art – and its potential relationship to our lives and to psychotherapy – than some more current (postmodern) approaches.
”…a view of art as a vehicle for the imaginative transmutation of the artist…”
“Modern hermetic art attempts to return to … ancient conceptions of the arts and the artist. It attempts, through all its forms … to repossess the magical powers of the imagination stultified by millennia of rationalism.” (A.C. Evans)
Although these quotations on hermetic art relate to plastic arts, I feel they can equally apply to poetics and to the relational processes that occur during psychotherapy, offering imaginative transformations for the client.
What is hermetic art?
Hermetic art refers to artistic works and practices that are inspired by or aligned with the principles of Hermeticism, a philosophical and esoteric tradition rooted in the teachings attributed to Hermes Trismegistus, a legendary figure associated with the fusion of Greek and Egyptian wisdom. Hermeticism encompasses a wide range of ideas, including alchemy, astrology, mysticism, and the pursuit of spiritual enlightenment.
In the context of art, Hermetic art often incorporates symbolic, allegorical, and mystical elements that reflect Hermetic principles such as:
- The Unity of All Things: The idea that everything in the universe is interconnected and part of a divine whole.
- As Above, So Below: The belief that the macrocosm (the universe) is reflected in the microcosm (the individual), and vice versa.
- Transformation and Alchemy: The process of spiritual and material transformation, often symbolized by the alchemical quest to turn base metals into gold.
- Hidden Knowledge: The pursuit of secret or esoteric wisdom that can lead to enlightenment or divine understanding.