Odilon Redon

    (Redon's work next to my piece, Grotesque Ethereal)


An old friend of mine recently sent me quite the gift---Jung's Red book. Of course Jung's influence on my psychological theory and practice is undeniable. Of course I like his art---and it is quite the thing to read about the art that influenced Jung. This is how I "found" Odilon Redon this week.

Look at the birth dates of my own influences (Sert, an important patron who literally brought many of these artists together in the same room, was at one time neighbor to Redon!) and it is easy to see how far back Redon's undeniable influence goes:

Goya 1746
Blake 1757
Bouguereau 1825
Redon 1840
Klimt 1862
Bonnard 1867
Matisse 1869
Parrish 1870
Misia Sert 1872
Jung 1875
Carl Rogers 1902
Cornell 1903


Of course Goya and Blake influenced Redon's subject matter. Redon's use of color influenced Bonnard. (Crazy encouraging side note: Redon did not work in color until his fifth decade.) Bonnard's use of color influences my own.

On my genogramjourney website I keep the following Soren Kierkegaard quote: "Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards." It is more natural for me to read magazines from back cover to front. I skip all over the place in my sketchbooks. I paint and create with metals even though it often results in a big, messy experiment. Sometimes I get it right, though, and when this happens...well, I am glad I didn't "wait" to try.

It is a delightful, strange thing to retroactively "discover" someone who has influenced my own artwork. I would liken it to unwrapping a gift that is brand new yet already occupies a deep place in one's heart. There is so much about the art world left for me to explore. What fun---and what community I feel looking back!