A glass work in progress, in preparation for the Eindexamen Exhibition




In ancient China the tiger was seen as the king of all beasts. There was a legend that when a tiger would reach 500 years old its tail would turn white. The white tiger thus became a mythological creature. It was said that the white tiger would only appear when the emperor ruled with complete virtue, or there was peace throughout the world. The white tiger thus becomes an emblem for balance, peace and harmony. Further to this, the white tiger carries the female Yin energy, and in Chinese astrology she corresponds to the seven positions of the moon. The white tiger and green dragon is a representaion of Yin-Yang, with the white tiger on the right pointing west, as she is the mythological guardian of the west.

In looking for ways to explore my interest in religious archetypes and their impact on people, on an individual and societal level, I started working with stained glass and mosaic with their sanctifying and celebrating religious conotations. With humans being the carriers, developers and manifestors of ideas, so stained glass is a filter for light just as the human is a filter for ideas.
This leads me to the following cycle: Archetypes in the realm of ideas => pulled through human filter into manifestation => sunlight filters through the created stained glass image of the archetype => hits the retinas of human viewers back into the realm of ideas. The connotations of the given archetype are thus intensified.

My focus with these works has been on powerful feminine archetypes, as they have been disregarded and pushed away within the Judeo-Christian system with its male trinity. In pre-Christian and non-western pantheistic systems there are plentiful examples of Goddess and God archetypes in balance: the hieros gamos or holy union. This is simply a representation of harmony, as with the story of Venus and Mars. Maximus Planudos and Lucretius explain: 'Venus, as a personified archetype of temperance, love, beauty and the great generative force in nature, in union with Mars neutralizes the destructive principle he symbolizes. They thus beget universal harmony, personified by their child: Harmonia. The fusion of these two opposing cosmic forces gives way to auspicious balance.' These archetypes of Gods and Goddesses can also function to inspire the individual to become their full potential.



A glass work in progress, in preparation for the Eindexamen Exhibition




In ancient China the tiger was seen as the king of all beasts. There was a legend that when a tiger would reach 500 years old its tail would turn white. The white tiger thus became a mythological creature. It was said that the white tiger would only appear when the emperor ruled with complete virtue, or there was peace throughout the world. The white tiger thus becomes an emblem for balance, peace and harmony. Further to this, the white tiger carries the female Yin energy, and in Chinese astrology she corresponds to the seven positions of the moon. The white tiger and green dragon is a representaion of Yin-Yang, with the white tiger on the right pointing west, as she is the mythological guardian of the west.

In looking for ways to explore my interest in religious archetypes and their impact on people, on an individual and societal level, I started working with stained glass and mosaic with their sanctifying and celebrating religious conotations. With humans being the carriers, developers and manifestors of ideas, so stained glass is a filter for light just as the human is a filter for ideas.
This leads me to the following cycle: Archetypes in the realm of ideas => pulled through human filter into manifestation => sunlight filters through the created stained glass image of the archetype => hits the retinas of human viewers back into the realm of ideas. The connotations of the given archetype are thus intensified.

My focus with these works has been on powerful feminine archetypes, as they have been disregarded and pushed away within the Judeo-Christian system with its male trinity. In pre-Christian and non-western pantheistic systems there are plentiful examples of Goddess and God archetypes in balance: the hieros gamos or holy union. This is simply a representation of harmony, as with the story of Venus and Mars. Maximus Planudos and Lucretius explain: 'Venus, as a personified archetype of temperance, love, beauty and the great generative force in nature, in union with Mars neutralizes the destructive principle he symbolizes. They thus beget universal harmony, personified by their child: Harmonia. The fusion of these two opposing cosmic forces gives way to auspicious balance.' These archetypes of Gods and Goddesses can also function to inspire the individual to become their full potential.