The Boston Museum of Fine Arts opened its retrospective exhibition of Jamie Wyeth’s works on July 16, and, as the fates allowed, I was there.
Objectively speaking, it is doubtful anyone would deny Jamie Wyeth’s extraordinary skill and expertise as an artist. However, my reflections here are simply subjective — pure projections of my own psyche.
First of all, I was delighted to be able to see “Bale of Hay” again. When I first viewed this painting years ago when it briefly hung at the Brandywine River Museum, I was in awe. This bale of hay sitting in a field was filled with light: it was a glimpse of the sacred in the ordinary. I was reminded of Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s words, “Earth’s crammed with heaven, And every common bush afire with God, But only he who sees takes off his shoes; The rest sit round and pluck blackberries.”
So, too, with the painting of a barn with a bag of lime spilling onto the ground. As the light strikes its whiteness, it shimmers. (“Lime Bag”)
One early morning driving down Creek Road, I spotted a man studying a gnarled tree. It was Andrew Wyeth. Now, I had passed that spot many times and didn’t notice the tree that made its own fairy cave with its roots. But Andy did. And Jamie Wyeth would too. I relate this story here, because I think the bag of lime and the hay bale we take for granted is like that tree. If we don’t take time to look, we don’t see the light, the shadow, the mystery in the everyday.
But the other side of the mystery is not so tame. Consider Wyeth’s “Inferno.” This is a large painting of Cat Bates, a shirtless island boy feeding a garbage-burning incinerator. Gulls swoop for scraps before the conflagration. My free association here? Is this an allegory of our lives of consumption? Or is it about earth being swallowed up in global warming? Impure projections … .
What also fascinated me as a psychologist with a Jungian interest in dreams, is how Jamie’s art is informed by his dreams. His recent works of turbulent seas with his father and grandfather standing on the rocky shore with Andy Warhol as observer are his dreamscapes. However, one person’s dreams can speak to the collective unconscious of us all.
* Kayta Curzie Gajdos holds a doctorate in counseling psychology and is in private practice in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania. She welcomes comments at MindMatters@DrGajdos.com or 610-388-2888. Past columns are posted to www.drgajdos.com.
About Kayta Gajdos
Dr. Kathleen Curzie Gajdos ("Kayta") is a licensed psychologist (Pennsylvania and Delaware) who has worked with individuals, couples, and families with a spectrum of problems. She has experience and training in the fields of alcohol and drug addictions, hypnosis, family therapy, Jungian theory, Gestalt therapy, EMDR, and bereavement. Dr. Gajdos developed a private practice in the Pittsburgh area, and was affiliated with the Family Therapy Institute of Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, having written numerous articles for the Family Therapy Newsletter there. She has published in the American Psychological Association Bulletin, the Family Psychologist, and in the Swedenborgian publications, Chrysalis and The Messenger. Dr. Gajdos has taught at the college level, most recently for West Chester University and Wilmington College, and has served as field faculty for Vermont College of Norwich University the Union Institute's Center for Distance Learning, Cincinnati, Ohio. She has also served as consulting psychologist to the Irene Stacy Community MH/MR Center in Western Pennsylvania where she supervised psychologists in training. Currently active in disaster relief, Dr. Gajdos serves with the American Red Cross and participated in Hurricane Katrina relief efforts as a member of teams from the Department of Health and Human Services' Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.Now living in Chadds Ford, in the Brandywine Valley of eastern Pennsylvania, Dr. Gajdos combines her private practice working with individuals, couples and families, with leading workshops on such topics as grief and healing, the impact of multigenerational grief and trauma shame, the shadow and self, Women Who Run with the Wolves, motherless daughters, and mediation and relaxation. Each year at Temenos Retreat Center in West Chester, PA she leads a griefs of birthing ritual for those who have suffered losses of procreation (abortions, miscarriages, infertility, etc.); she also holds yearly A Day of Re-Collection at Temenos.Dr. Gajdos holds Master's degrees in both philosophy and clinical psychology and received her Ph.D. in counseling at the University of Pittsburgh. Among her professional affiliations, she includes having been a founding member and board member of the C.G. Jung Educational Center of Pittsburgh, as well as being listed in Who's Who of American Women. Currently, she is a member of the American Psychological Association, The Pennsylvania Psychological Association, the Delaware Psychological Association, the American Family Therapy Academy, The Association for Death Education and Counseling, and the Delaware County Mental Health and Mental Retardation Board. Woven into her professional career are Dr. Gajdos' pursuits of dancing, singing, and writing poetry.
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