" DREAMS, DEITIES, AND ARCHETYPES” - A Call to Visionary Artists

               

 Lauren Raine                                        Kathy Keler                         Carl  Gustave Jung

 

" DREAMS, DEITIES, AND ARCHETYPES”

Calling Artists for an Exhibition of Visionary Artists

January 31^st  through April 21^st 2026

“The essence of a great work of art is its ability to rise above the personal

 and speak to the heart of humankind.” …… Carl Gustav Jung

The revolutionary psychologist Carl Jung was also an artist who saw art as a powerful expression of the unconscious, and as a way for the collective unconscious  to manifest. He believed visionary art often came from a transcendent or "outside" source, "flowing" through the artist rather than solely reflecting the artist's conscious will. Visionary art often departs from traditional realism to portray a less tangible world, exploring the mysterious “pentimento’s” of a “larger reality” that arises from the inner landscape of each artist.

In support of this understanding, the Southern Arizona Friends of Jung and the Stevens Gallery in the Stearns Center for the Arts in Tucson, Arizona, invite artists to submit work that shares their very unique visions. The Stevens Gallery is a bright, modern space that can host an impressive and beautiful new exhibit – we look forward to seeing your work.

Submission Deadline:                  October 15, 2025. Response by  December 15, 2025.

Jury Fee:                                      none

Delivery of accepted works:        January 24, 12  to 2pm at the Gallery, 1545 East Copper Street, Tucson, AZ

Installation:                                 January 31,   9am to 3pm

The Opening Reception:            February 7,  6 to 8pm

Gallery Open & Special Events:  February 14,  March 7,  April 14   (12 pm to 4 pm)

Pick up of Work:                          April 20 and April 21 (3pm to 5pm)

Eligibility: Open to Tucson artists and artists from Southern Arizona. Work must be hand delivered only – we cannot accept shipments. The gallery is a bright, modern space that showcases the artwork of Salpointe Art Center  as well as invited regional artists and art affiliations. Purchases made through the Stevens Gallery benefit the artist (90%) and the Center for the Arts (10%). Sold works, whether through the Gallery Exhibition or through our Online Catalog/Exhibition must stay in  the exhibition until the show ends. Purchases of work online can be made through ArtPal.

How to Submit Work:

Accepted Mediums are  Painting, Drawing, Mixed Media, Sculpture, and Photography.  We cannot accept video or digital mediums.

Image Format:  Please provide up to five  (5) images of artwork in JPEG format with a minimum resolution of 300 DPI. Images should include the title as well as artist’s name. Please list the title, dimensions, medium and prices on the Entry Form. All entries must be original works created by the submitting artist, and if they are a series, also please let us know. Please also include a brief artist statement (max 250 words) about  your work and how it connects to the theme.

Contact Email:    safojart@gmail.com

Online Application Form:

  https://safojvisionaryarts.blogspot.com/2025/05/a-call-to-visionary-artists.html

For the Summer Solstice 2025

 

The Buddha’s Last Instruction

 

“Make of yourself a light,” 

said the Buddha,
before he died.

I think of this every morning
as the east begins
to tear off its many clouds
of darkness, to send up the first
signal – a white fan
streaked with pink and violet,
even green.

An old man, he lay down
between two sala trees,
and he might have said anything,
knowing it was his final hour.

The light burns upward,
it thickens and settles over the fields.
Around him, the villagers gathered
and stretched forward to listen.
Even before the sun itself
hangs, disattached, in the blue air,
I am touched everywhere
by its ocean of yellow waves. 

No doubt he thought of everything
that had happened in his difficult life.

And then I feel the sun itself
as it blazes over the hills,
like a million flowers on fire –
clearly I’m not needed,
yet I feel myself turning
into something  of inexplicable value.

Slowly, beneath the branches,
he raised his head.
He looked into the faces of that frightened crowd.

~ Mary Oliver ~

I woke early, on this longest day:

the light rose among
 the green conversation 
of  trees, a fading star, exultant starlings,
  two grey squirrels 
performing their morning ritual

greeting the only God 
they know,

the Sun

Lauren Raine (2013)

A Quote for the Time........

 "We live in capitalism.  Its power seems inescapable - but then, so did the divine right of kings.  Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings.  Resistance and change often begin in art, the art of words."

.....Ursula Kroeber Leguin

Old Masks: A Ritual of "Endarkenment"

"old masks" (2020)

“Light is the left hand of darkness

and darkness the right hand of light."

― Ursula K. Le Guin, The Left Hand of Darkness

It's almost the Summer Solstice, the time of Fullness and Bright Light.  So a "Ritual of Endarkenment" seems a bit out of place.......yet this occurred to me as a good "prelude" to the Solstice.  From the Darkness we can often find the means to become much "lighter" as we discard "old masks".  Without Darkness there would be no generative Light.  From "Endarkenment" can arise "Enlightenment".  

So I remembered this Meditation I wrote, way back when.............

RITUAL OF ENDARKENMENT

Close your eyes, and see  a cord
a shining umbilical cord at your naval
that goes down,

into the dreaming Earth.

Into the darkness, the silence, follow,
that luminous cord, 
un-becoming, 
un-knowing

As you descend into the warm darkness
remove your garments 
remove, one by one
remove your masks.

One by one, take them off
feel the heavy weight of each as 
you let it fall, as you descend. 
Let each mask fall away, but
take a moment to see it before it falls
into the Earth, into the darkness.

Take off the mask of competence,
the mask of your accomplishments.
what does that mask look like?

Take  off the child's mask,  the little one
laughing with delight, the child crying helplessly in an empty room.
Take it off  with tenderness.

The masks of relationship, the masks you wear with others,
the mask of the lover, the mate, the parent,
the mask of conflict, the mask of the warrior,
the mask of affiliation, of responsibility, of duty:
take each one off, hold it in your hand, let it go,
into the darkness, see them fall, 
the question "who am I?"
falling like a feather with them.

And take off the mask of your age
the accumulated years that whisper 
I'm just a kid, I'm middle aged, I'm old, I must, I can't,
I will I should it's too late, I can't.........
take them all off, let go, feel the weight leave you.

The masks of your parents that you also learned to wear,
their fears and dreams in the shape of your face,
 remove them with respect and pity, and descend

to the last masks, the shadow masks

the masks you do not look at, but cling to,
see them in your hands -  and let them go,
into the darkness, into the dreaming Earth.

Rest, and  wait.
Ask  for the dreams
the unborn ones

that wait to be born in you
empty and held in the womb of the Earth
invite them to come, in time to come, 
the guidance and inspiration that will infuse your new year.

Make that prayer  into the darkness,
feel it like a pulse among roots, that deep umbilical
holding you safe.  Rest, and  know you are loved,
held, a seed, a child, a hope, a potential.

Begin to ascend at last.
As you rise, see the masks you've discarded -
one by one, take them in your hands.
Perhaps some you no longer need;
some you will examine more closely in the future.
Perhaps some you will discard, and
some you will wear more lightly.  Feel their weight.

And as you emerge from the earth
into the sunlit world, feel that unbroken cord, shining,
unseen, holding  you to your origin.

 And always, always generous.

(1998)