Artist Statement
As a child, my parents greatly fostered my love for both art and nature. I preferred being outside more than inside. My love for insects has been present since my early days. As a child, I enjoyed searching for them everywhere: in my garage, the yard, the woods, and even in my driveway. The bugs I enjoyed catching and holding ranged from cellar spiders, ladybugs, moths, inchworms, fireflies, slugs, and worms. My favorite activity to do was flipping over the big rocks in my front yard to see what little creatures lay beneath, and drawing with chalk in our driveway. When I did go inside, I was most likely finger painting or building sculptures out of play-dough. This later grew into my interest in oil painting and ceramics. I decided to pursue oil painting for my thesis in combination with insects, another one of my personal interests.
Thesis Abstract
This thesis examines insects as Jungian archetypes for self-exploration and a tool within Art Therapy. Across the world, insects have served as cultural symbols. Carl Jung developed archetypes as a way of bridging the conscious and unconscious mind. These symbols emerge through dreams, drawings, or appear in everyday life, including in media and literature. Incorporating archetypes into the art therapy process can deepen a client’s understanding of themselves. The method for this research involved studying the symbolism of insects, sketching insect forms, and transferring the sketches into painted forms. In result, five oil paintings of insects were created, each with its own archetype. The insects and their archetypes include: Death’s Head Hawkmoth: The Shadow, Golden Tortoise Beetle: The Persona, Gynandromorphic Swallowtail Butterfly: The Anima & Animus, Scarab: The Self, and Ladybug: The Puer Aeternus.