ASHEVILLE, N.C. (828newsNOW) — A new multimedia exhibit is coming to Pink Dog Creative in the River Arts District this fall.
Janice Geller is a professional artist and psychotherapist. Her bright, colorful artwork delves into the subconscious, rendering dark dreams or deep traumas in brilliant arrays of paint and collage.
Geller will display her new exhibit, “Inner Worlds,” from Aug. 22–Sept. 21 at Pink Dog Gallery, 348 Depot St. The opening reception will be held from 6 to 8:30 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 22.
The “inner worlds” on display in her art gallery are from her own subconscious, Geller explained, but also from the experience of working with her clients’ pain. She employed the practice of Carl Jung’s “authentic movement” theory of the unconscious during her creation of several of the works.
“The images come from vivid dreams, from doing this process of movement, then sort of dialoguing with different parts of myself,” Geller said. “In the paintings, I will sort of talk to some of the figures and have them speak back to me.”
Geller does not always know what her paintings will say to her when she begins.
“When I start, I don’t really know where I’m going or what I’m doing,” Geller admitted. “But then, the images begin to arise, and then I paint them. And it’s like a kind of therapeutic process as well as it is a writing or an art project.”
In fact, Geller will often work through the therapy sessions she conducts in the artwork she creates.
“It’s a process that I do for my own mental health,” Geller said. “I get a lot of stories coming in through clients and it helps me process their inner worlds by paying attention to mine.”
In other pieces, Geller has represented the trauma of the planet in her work. Take her acrylic painting and collage, “Visiting the Future.”
“The people that have seen it think it’s a very positive painting, and, ‘wow, the future looks like that? That would be great,'” said Geller. “And I see in it that the flamingos, the flocks are separated and that there’s pollution on a lot of the birds. So, it’s not really a very positive painting in many ways.”
However, ultimately, Geller does aspire to find the beauty in even the bleakest parts of her subconscious.
“There’s all that,” Geller said. “But then there’s also, for me, maybe the future could also be something beautiful. Like creating something out of some of the things that are challenging for us as humans.”
For those who wish to dive further into Geller’s “Inner Worlds,” more information about the exhibition can be found at www.pinkdog-creative.com.