I’m pleasantly fascinated by the shared and contrasting use of a house as representative imagery of the inner psyche in both my painting from my “Mitwelt Melt” series and Aubrey Reed’s artwork called “Beyond the Threshold.” Both were published in the Spring 2024 Intima.

*Beyond the Threshold* by Aubrey Reed *Spring 2024 Intima*

In “Beyond the Threshold,” the subject is confined in a house that obstructs their vision as metaphor for mental illness barriers, but there is hope in the light that shines through and filters out with the birds.

In my series of paintings, based on a dream, a woman made of temporal (melting) ice cream is wandering in an unfamiliar psychological landscape and comes across a familiar house. As she gets closer, she sees that the windows are dark and unwelcoming, so she chooses to continue past the house and down the river into the night. It is a representation of letting go of old ways of being when they no longer serve us, even when the alternative is unknown.

Carl Jung believed house imagery in dreams represent the human psyche. In both artworks, the houses are familiar structures of shelter that simultaneously represent ominous confinement and isolation. We may be capable of observing and moving past some psychological structures that have become an obstruction, while others feel intertwined with our very being, like a house that fits more like a skull.

Jennie Vegt is a professional artist and a Psychiatry graduate student working on a thesis on arts in health. Having used art-making to process her own healing, Vegt is passionate about creating greater accessibility to the healing power of arts for those who might not identify as 'artist'. She works as an 'Artist on the Ward', where she has learned that genuine human connection is the access point to engaged creativity and 'flow' in her sessions with patients in hospital. Discover more about Vegt on Instagram @jenniethepainter.