In The Nursery

In The Nursery

In The Nursery is meant to illustrate the strength and frailty of consciousness and the depths to which we experience the human condition. The woman is displaced, out of sync and stitched together from a multitude of people, like a specter of layered memories, both timeless and self-aware. 

Inspired by Carl Jung’s writings on the human psyche. In particular – his theory of consciousness and the archetypes within each of us. In The Nursery is meant to represent the archetype called the “Persona”. It is the outward face we present to the world. The Persona conceals our real self and Jung describes it as the “conformity” archetype. This public face we present to others is someone different than who we really are.

In the Nursery is an oil painting of a calm and displaced set of figures in a fetal position. The rich colorful tones are carefully blended in transparent layers. The segmented and broken figure is meant to evoke an out-of-body experience, or dream state.