About the Course
A transformative journey introducing a range of ideas and practices that explore the mysterious realm of the unconscious, and its influence on visual artists, both past and present.
In each class Ann McCoy lectures on themes such as: the Jungian unconscious as a place of transformation and revelation, women spiritualists and visionaries, the alchemical imagination, and working with the dreamworld. She shares examples drawn from conversations with artists she personally knew such as Ana Mendieta, Joseph Beuys, Hermann Nitsch, and Carol Schneemann, as well as artists evolving in these tradition today.
In the second half of each session Chantal Powell will guide you through a practical automatic technique developed by the Surrealists and earlier visionaries who used these creative methods to bypass conscious thinking. You will be given new intuitive ways of image making to incorporate into your work and be introduced to a deeper understanding of the role of the unconscious in the creative process.
Open to all (no previous art experience needed for workshops) but may be of particular interest to creatives.
Watch Online
Recordings of five classes (originally took place weekly live May 2023)
Classes approx 90 - 120 mins each
£125 (approx $155)
Course Leaders
Ann McCoy is a New York-based sculptor, painter, and art critic, and Editor-at- Large for the Brooklyn Rail. Ann is known for her large scale drawings of the dream world and has work included in many collections including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Los Angeles County Museum, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Whitney Museum of American Art. In 1985 her work featured in the Venice Biennale "Art and Alchemy" curated by Arturo Schwarz. She was awarded a John Simon Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship in 2019 and has also received awards from the Pollock Krasner Foundation amongst many others.
Ann McCoy worked with Prof. C.A. Meier, Jung’s heir apparent for twenty-eight years in Zurich She has studied alchemy since the early seventies in Zurich, and Rome at the Vatican Library.
Ann has lectured on art history, the history of projection, and mythology at the Yale School of Drama until May 2020, and taught at Barnard College from 1980 through 2000. Ann now lectures on Jung and the artistic process from over fifty years of analytical experience and feels strongly that creative people have a unique approach to the unconscious, that comes from working with actual materials, and in-between dream states.
Chantal Powell is an UK-based artist, educator and curator.
Her art practice explores the symbolic language of the unconscious and is informed by a PhD in social psychology and an ongoing study of Jungian theory and inner alchemy.
Over recent years she has been researching first-hand the imagery in alchemical manuscripts and notebooks from the 15th and 16th century. Combining archetypal symbols from these sources alongside those from mythology and personal inner work, she makes art that brings awareness to the importance of energy-filled symbols to connect us to a world beyond that of the rational conscious.
Chantal is also the founder of the artist residency program "Hogchester Arts" in West Dorset and hosts the Jungian online book club and speaker program "The Red Book Club". She presents illustrated talks and workshops on psychological alchemy from an artist’s perspective and has co-curated exhibitions with a focus on archetypally symbolic art.
Course Outline
CLASS 1
Lecture: The Unconscious - Introduction to the unconscious and how artists have approached it as a place of transformation and revelation.
Workshop: Parsemage
CLASS 2
Lecture: Dreamworld - Working with dreams as letters from the unconscious. How artists have used and depicted the dreamworld across time.
Workshop: Automatic Drawing
CLASS 3
Lecture: Living Archetypes - How artists work with the Archetype figures, states and elements as living realities.
Workshop: Decalcomania
CLASS 4
Lecture: Devotional Practices - Images of the sacred and what Jung called the Self. Ways contemporary artists are redefining sacred ritual and practice.
Workshop: Entopic Graphomania
CLASS 5
Lecture: Alchemical Imagination - An introduction to alchemical images and processes including a discussion of how artists use alchemical symbols. Concepts like incarnation and transmutation will be discussed.
Workshop: Fumage
What you get
When you purchase the course you will have access to watch all five classes at your own pace.
Each class section has a Materials List download for that particular class workshop before the video recording.
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You will also receive a resource download of additional books/ links that are mentioned throughout the classes.
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WHAT PEOPLE SAY
Photographer -
UK
One of the most enjoyable and interesting courses I've ever done! Extremely well planned and executed
Artist / poet / Yale Governing board - US
It was an extraordinary class. Thank you so much.
Artist - Geneva
A big thank you for this incredible course.
It provided me with lots of references for my art practice and a new perspective on aspects of my creative process
Psychotherapist - UK
Thanks once again for a phenomenal course I cannot tell you how important this has all been for me! I love this way of working.
Artist - UK
This is already impacting my process, a lot of possible gestures and textures opening up
