Developing an Appreciation of Visionary Art
Fiona Gillespie is a young Irish artist from Cork and a recent graduate from the Limerick School of Art and Design. Her work is a colourful concoction from which emerges monster heads, anthropomorphic creatures, and weird vegetation. The almost ‘kitsch’ style is loud and unapologetic with pure saturated colour reminiscent of psychedelic art. However, the… Continue reading
In 2013, the rugby analyst and outsider art enthusiast Brent Pope hosted an RTE documentary on outsider artists in Ireland. I only became aware of this program last year. However, I was very excited to see a TV program celebrating talented and creative Irish individuals outside the mainstream art market. Outsider art (for those who… Continue reading
While researching visionary art, it becomes clear that ‘visionary art according to fantastic realism,’ saturates online platforms. At first, I considered the work ‘kitsch’ (i.e., ornamental and decorative pieces without true artistic merit) dues to its strong connections with psychedelic art – most of the works would undoubtedly depict a meditating figure surrounded by colorful… Continue reading
Lisette Knutsen is a Swedish artist who creates obsessively and continuously. Her work is mostly drawings using watercolour paints and black ink on white paper. When you look at one of Knutsen’s drawings, you instantly feel overwhelmed. You are uncertain whether or not you should be horrified, mystified, or grateful that you had the opportunity… Continue reading
I discovered Hilma af Klint during my final year as an undergraduate (Fine Art) student. At first, I was mildly interested. But as I began reading more about her, my interest peaked. I became awestruck by the grand scale of her compositions, the fact that she predates abstract expressionism by almost two decades, and that… Continue reading
Mo Riza is a New York-based artist who works a professional career during the day. Yet, in the early hours of the morning, he vanishes into his home studio and creates wonderful visionary paintings using cheap household paint and rolls of constructive paper. The visual imagery he creates stems from a fantastic world and depicts… Continue reading
This article is a brief discussion on Jung’s Seven Sermons to the Dead, the mystical and philosophical extract from the Red Book that first introduced the concept of the individuation process.
In this article I will be discussing Jung’s conceptualization of the transcendent function and how it relates to the creative process. In this article I use the following sources: Jung’s essay The Transcendent Function (1916), the psychologist, Jeffrey Miller’s text The Transcendent Function: Jung’s Model of Psychological Growth (2004), and the Jungian Analyst, Robert Mathews… Continue reading
Word count: approx 1,200 In the essay ‘On the Relation of Analytical Psychology to Poetry’ (1930) Jung describes two modes of creativity. The psychological mode where the artist derives their inspiration from the sphere of conscious experience and the visionary mode which depicts unknown aspects of the unconscious in the form of symbolic and archetypal… Continue reading