Up: [[Values]] Related: [[Creating a Body of Work]] Created: 2023-06-24 Updated: 2026-03-02 **Giving visual and written expression to my inner world by being receptive to what wants to come through me** ### Self-Expression, Not Personal Expression For a while I was using the term ‘Personal Expression’ in place of Creativity or Art because those last two terms are so freighted with expectation and heavy meaning. I mentioned this to Helen at the end of a double session, and she disagreed, said something about needing to ask myself whether personal expression is from [[The Self]] or from [[Ego]]. For me it’s very much from Self, me being as much of a conduit as I possibly can to whatever wants to come through me. She wants to discuss this further, seemed concerned about my choice of term, so we’ll do that next session, but I hadn’t mentioned the conduit piece and I suspect that’s what she is going to talk about; that I need to see this as coming through me, not created by me. If so, I’m good with the term I’m using. Plus I really like that it extends to other aspects of my life, like making an especially nice meal. Later… Helen and I haven’t talked about it but I switched to Self-Expression so that I’m focusing on [[the Self]] and on being a conduit or being receptive, probably a better term because it’s a core characteristic of the [[Feminine Principle]]. Self-expression, for me, includes both writing and the visual arts. Especially nice meals may figure occasionally, but my big desire is to be receptive and I’m not at all adventurous enough in meal prep to do anything other than follow recipes to the letter! ### Inner World My inner world is both my source and my theme; it’s where I will find the essence I wish to express. > [!Orbit] Ian Roberts in *Creative Authenticity* > To find power, we must delve into being, into Self. The depth of your painting will equal the depth of your contact with being. (p. 158) Over the past seven and a half years of Jungian analysis, I’ve learned to trust in psyche as my guide through [[Image]], [[dreams]], and [[Active Imagination]]. Like Herman Hesse, *I have begun to listen to the teaching my blood whispers to me* rather than collecting and parroting other voices. At the end of the day, [[Lasair - My Third Act Passion]] will be, in Peter London’s wonderful words, *an externalized map of my interior self.* #### Visual Arts [[I Want to Make Expressive Art]] [[I Want to Make Narrative Art]] Painting, for me, is watercolour, gouache, and acrylics. I have no interest in oils. I don’t know if I have a preference among the three I’ve listed. I suspect it’s a matter of different paints for different emotions and look forward to finding out if I’m right. I enjoy using soft pastels, Tombow markers, acrylic inks and, to a slightly lesser extent, pencil crayons. I haven’t yet used oil pastels although I’ve got them. I love narrative collage and have oodles of supplies. I also have the supplies for printmaking and for sculpting but they’re just there if the spirit moves me. I like having lots of materials at my fingertips and, like most in a similar boat, I love buying art supplies! However, I haven’t actually needed or purchased any for a long time. I’ve got a LOT of supplies! I have zero interest in displaying or selling my art so I don’t use canvases, only specialty paper, like the paper for soft pastels, or one of my many art journals. I’d like to become a photographer who knows my camera’s settings and how to use them to maximum effectiveness. And I’d like to discover my voice, my authentic vision in photography, to learn what it is that matters most to me. I’d like to be able to take photographs that express an emotion, that tell a story, that are a metaphor. Update [[2026-03-02]]: I was doing a lot of work with J in [[Zen Camera]] when I wrote that statement. It’s not as important to me now, but maybe I’ll get back to it at some point. I own a ridiculous amount of online art classes, many of which I haven’t even touched. I really need to make use of the course material I already own before buying anything else, but that never stops me from hitting the purchase button. However, I’m becoming much more discerning about which courses I buy. I want to be doing my own thing, not follow someone else’s plan. While I have themes I’m interested in, how things appear and what I do needs to feel receptive, organic and free to me. For example, when I am making art of a dream, I try to consider how [[Hestia]] would do it, rather than leaping immediately to the [[Masculine Principle]] of making it representational. #### Writing My interest is for [[Life Writing]] which includes [[Beams]], all of the forms of [[Introspective Writing]], the various personal writing genres such as essays, memoir, and myth, plus [[Poetry]]. More than anything, I want the combination of text and image.