Mary Mason Banks

In thinking about creating a piece of artwork for the 2022 archetype exhibition for Creative Strength Training, my Seeker came to mind. I have been aware of archetypes for a long time, both as a concept, and as a part of my own personal being. The Seeker was with me first, and has been accompanied by my Nature Child in most adventures. Add my budding Alchemist to make a trio, and it’s really a formula for mischief.

As I was musing about how to portray my Seeker, I came across an ancient concept called the urobouros. Though this was a new word for me, I recalled seeing pictures of artwork and jewelry fashioned into a circle. The circle might be in the form of a snake, a lizard, or a dragon. This ancient symbol goes back not years or even centuries, but millennia. As the urobouros devours its own tail in a never-ending cycle of life, death, and regeneration, it may be considered a thing of beauty or the stuff of nightmares.

I have chosen to incorporate the urobouros into another circular form, the ancient symbol of the Mandala. Other analogous symbols are present as well. I will leave the rest for you to decipher. The urobouros border of my mandala originated as the circular edging of a traditional Indonesian batik. As I worked with my Seeker and my Nature Child, the other elements of the design revealed themselves. My Seeker was determined that this work be conceived as a simple beginning, a place of origin if you will, for my emerging archetypal array.

In his book, Care of the Soul, Thomas Moore states that “All work on the soul takes the form of a circle, a rotation.” The self is seen as the center of the soul around which the archetypes form a circle, bringing order and harmony to our lives. As this mandala provides me with a visual focus for my archetypes, it symbolizes my “Self–Center.”

What is it I seek? Truth and Beauty? Maybe once upon a time. What is it I seek? To get up every morning with love in my heart. To live in authenticity as best I am able, To keep my feet on the path, wherever the path may take me, To make my art with honor and love for all who have reached out a hand to me.

Self Centered 2022 18” x 18” Mixed Media Textile NFS reblue1973@gmail.com