Thanks for stopping by my little corner of the internet! Just a heads up, this site is like a toddler with a crayon—always a work in progress because I’m a delightful mess of contradictions. I’m on a never-ending quest to harmonize my inner chaos, juggling conflicting thoughts, desires, beliefs, and behaviors like a circus clown on a unicycle. So, welcome to my evolving contradiction!
"Its main result for me has been the confirmation of a thought I have long and faithfully entertained: of the unity of the race of man, not only in its biology, but also in its spiritual history, which has everywhere unfolded in the manner of a single symphony, with its themes announced, developed, amplified and turned about, distorted, reasserted, and today, in a grand fortissimo of all sections sounding together, irresistibly advancing to some kind of mighty climax, out of which the next great movement will emerge." The Masks of God- Joseph Campbell
This concept begins as a consideration of the power of cultural icons and their limitations. My primary question, or the concept, is whether icons can be universal. The first consideration in answering this question is the power of a figure to connect to me by virtue of external similarity determined by the individual or society, as to what we should be. I want to show that the enduring power of an icon derives from its form and not from a superficial resemblance to the external self.
While the icon has an undeniable power to engage it is temporary at best, because I will change in appearance and the icon will remain superficially unchanged. And because of this the icon will fail to engage me by surface similarity alone. But icons have another more enduring power which does not derive from superficial similarity. This power is the underlying form that icons are displayed in. The power of the icon is its archetypal structure. For example, the image of the Madonna and Child is immediately recognized by Christians, but an image of a mother and child is understood and embraced by any culture in any age. While it seems that the mother and child is a true universal icon, this image might still be analyzed further. It is the form which encircles a smaller form that communicates a primal understanding of that wordless feeling that transpires between mother and child. And further, it is the movement of springing forth from and still being a part of that completes this icon’s power as a universal form and movement.
