What do you keep hidden, even from yourself?
That question sits at the heart of my new work, which I’m showing in Shadows, a group show of ten artists at UniCat Gallery on Halloween night. My pieces explore the conscious and unconscious mind, the masks we wear, and the symbols that rise from our dreams.
And since it’s Halloween, the opening is a costume party. Two professional photographers will shoot portraits in the Old City Cemetery right across the street. The best photo wins an original portrait by Noli Novak, who owns UniCat with her husband, George. Add ghost stories, live poetry, a DJ, and dancing until midnight, and you have a night worth dressing up for.
Where the Work Comes From
My work is inspired by my dreams and the symbols that are part of my inner journey. For years I’ve been drawn to the writings of Carl Jung, especially his ideas about the shadow, the persona, and the collective unconscious.
Jung believed that certain images show up again and again across cultures, myths, and dreams. Serpents, birds, eyes, circles. These archetypes speak a language older than words, and they still speak to us today.
Shadow work is the practice of facing the parts of ourselves we’d rather not see. This show is my invitation to look, and to find that the dark holds as much meaning as the light.
Featured Piece: Light and Shadow
Light and Shadow is built on two overlapping circles. The upper circle glows with radiating light and holds the conscious self, the persona we show the world. A raven rises through it, wings spread, a symbol of freedom and the soul’s flight.
The lower circle rests in darkness. This is the unconscious: the unknown, the hidden, the inherited. At its center coils the ouroboros, the ancient serpent swallowing its own tail, twisted into infinity. It speaks to the endless cycle of birth, death, and renewal.
Where the two circles meet, an eye opens. That eye is each of us, never fully in the light or fully in shadow, always seeing from both. Together the circles form the vesica piscis, a sacred geometry figure that has stood for the meeting of spirit and matter for thousands of years.
Carving Light Out of Darkness
My scratchboard pieces start as a solid black surface. I carve into it line by line with a fine blade, scratching away the dark to reveal the white layer beneath.
There is no erasing. Each mark is permanent, so every line has to be deliberate. The process mirrors the subject itself: bringing hidden things into the light, one careful stroke at a time.
My training in illustration at Ringling College of Art and Design taught me to respect line work. Scratchboard pushes that discipline further than any medium I’ve used.
Modern Batiks
Alongside the scratchboard work, I’m showing seven modern batiks, painted on 100% cotton using a layered technique I’ve refined since college. Each piece develops its own dark crackle pattern, giving it the look of an ancient artifact, and no two ever crack the same way.
Five of the batiks show bats in flight against the moon, perfect company for a Halloween opening. One is a single enormous spiral, one of humanity’s oldest symbols of growth and the journey inward. The seventh revisits the design of Light and Shadow, translating the raven, the eye, and the ouroboros into paint and crackled texture on cotton.
Bring a Piece Home
My framed scratchboard originals and batiks will be available for purchase at the opening. Each is one of a kind and made entirely by hand. I’m also releasing signed, numbered limited-edition prints of select pieces, including Light and Shadow. Editions are small, so once they’re gone, they’re gone. Opening-night guests get first pick of both originals and prints.
Join Me at the Opening
• What: Shadows, a group show featuring ten artists, plus a Halloween costume party
• When: Halloween night, Saturday, October 31, 6 pm to midnight
• Where: UniCat Gallery, 602 E. Union St., Jacksonville, FL 32206
Come in costume, get your portrait taken among the headstones, and stay for the ghost stories, poetry, and dancing. I’ll be there all night and would love to talk about the symbols, the process, and the dreams behind each piece.
Can’t make it? The show will stay up through First Wednesday Art Walk downtown Jacksonville.
Reach out through the contact page at KatoCreative.com to ask about available originals and prints.
