Working thematically and in Series

I am greatly influenced by Henry Moore’s idea of a form having a “power of expression.” I work until I recognise that a structure carries this expressive force.

For Carl Jung, the power in an expression lies in its psychological charge. A form becomes significant when it is symbolic of some personal meaning and therefore resonates. That form might appear in a dream, in an artwork, or even in an outward event such as a synchronicity. The resonance is the clue: it suggests that the form carries meaning, even if that meaning is not yet clear.

But psychological symbols are tentative. They do not submit easily to fixed interpretation, to a simple “this means that.” Their significance may take years to unfold and may never be fully understood. As Jung wrote, a symbol is “an expression of an intuitive idea that cannot yet be formulated in any other or better way.” It takes time.

This creates a difficulty for artists who want their work to carry emotional or symbolic force, because there is a temptation to force resolution too early. My way through this is to work thematically, in series. I often only recognise the underlying thread by seeing forms recur across different works. Meaning emerges through repetition and variation.

Jung advised making images “over and over again until satisfactory.” For me, this means approaching the same motif through different forms, structures, and techniques. A single work is rarely enough to convey the full charge of an idea. More often, expression deepens across multiple works, through variations of the same motif. It is in this kind of polyphony that the meaning begins to gather force.