Dissertation
Made as a single copy craft-bound book, Bird Messengers was the title of my dissertation. It was the result of the TUS course that I completed, MA in Art, Psyche and the Creative Imagination, graduating in 2025. The project was founded upon depth psychology and Jungian arts-based research.
This keepsake was expertly produced by Hubert Bookbinding in Cork.
Abstract
In this research I explored the interplay of my personal process (dreams, synchronicities and image making) and my creative practice (non-directed painting) as an approach for interacting with and learning from the unconscious. What emerges is not a linear path but an emergent web of meaning making.
The creative practice described follows the methodology of Jungian arts-based research (JABR). I also explore alchemical hermeneutics to more deeply explore meaning making between me as researcher-artist and the images I produced.
The research I describe is through the emergent motif of birds in my personal process. I explore how the bird symbol arises in alchemy and in myth (including Celtic myth) and ask whether there are possible implications for the contemporary Irish psyche.
Keywords
Bird, myths, symbols, archetypes, synchronicity, dream, anima, Jungian arts-based research, alchemical hermeneutics, non-directed art, stages of the anima, mystery of unconscious.
Paintings
See my Bird Messenger Paintings that came from the creative practice in the dissertation.
