TOBI ZAUSNER, PhD, LCSW
My visual art is about possibilities depicted as actualities to inspire dreams in the viewer. Navigating deep spaces of mind, the psychological/metaphysical subject matter is intended to become catalytic to contemplation. Images balance between the known and the unknown. Careful rendering in the art suggests reality while its visual content aims to enlarge the possibilities of consciousness. The works are dreams made real, so that “what if” may appear “as is.”
Advice to the Imperfect
(Oil on Canvas, 48” x 60”)
This work is entitled ADVICE TO THE IMPERFECT, and since no one is perfect, the title relates to everyone. The model for the woman is my friend Janeice, yet the image is not a portrait of a specific person but a statement about the potential inherent in everyone. The swimmer is moving from a bounded into an unbounded area. Her eyes are closed indicating an inward focus, central to self-reflection and to psychotherapy. She is all of us who can enlarge our lives by moving away from confinement into the openness of possibilities, a transition central to psychological growth. Water symbolizes the unconscious in Jungian psychology, a place of chaos and creativity. If the figure were drowning, it would signify being overwhelmed by unconscious processes, but she is swimming while holding two umbrellas. Rationally, the umbrellas impede her swimming but psychologically, they are a sign of strength. I made one umbrella pink and the other white, not knowing why when I painted them. Later when asked about the colors, I realized they are body and spirit that when brought together signify integration. Holding both umbrellas is like simultaneously acknowledging two points of view an experience in therapy that can expand awareness. It is both the end of dichotomy and the nature of paradox. And at the heart of every paradox is an experience that can generate fusion, bringing insights, psychological breakthroughs, and transformation.