Birthing the Self

Self-Conquest: Mother of All Epics

Four years elapsed between the moment the river revealed its treasures of wood to me, and the moment I succeeded in shaping them into installations for this series of sacred art.

The even longer time it took for the elements to shape this wood is analogous to the time I needed to assume my creative nature. These pieces were held captive in the silt before being worked in depth there, just as I was held captive by my fears before engaging in the ultimate quest.

From deaths to rebirths, the works born of these successive mutations tell this story, deeply nourished by the reflections of Meister Eckhart and Annick de Souzenelle.

NB: Click on an image to enlarge it and access additional explanations.

The golden piece of wood evokes an archetypal "carnyx" standing out against an explosive black and red background.

The three-part installation (photograph) in the background, two pieces of wood in the foreground, a walking stick. 3, 2, 1, return home.

The background consists of a red and black image in three parts. Highly dynamic, the photograph evokes an explosion.

In front of it, in the center, stands a wooden stick. It is planted in a rock, which itself rests on sand. Its features are highlighted in gold. It appears crowned with an animal head. It is very similar to a carnyx, the Celtic war trumpet. Yet the form taking shape within it remains mysterious, archetypal.

Behind this head, there is an empty space, in the centre of what looks like a hand open towards the sky. It sits in the axis of the white light from the photograph, the heart of the explosion.

Access to the stick is blocked by an antique beam of planks in the foreground. The two parts of this beam are joined at the base by a metal piece. The upper part is burnt. The edges of the wood grain are gilded, standing out against the soot. The whole is U-shaped, evoking the consecrated horns of Knossos.

Three in the back, two in the front, one in the center. 3, 2, 1... like a countdown, a danced regression with the center as its destination.

Returning to Unity means going towards the Self in a great inner reversal. Going towards the Self means plunging into inner silence, entering within, returning to the home of body and spirit, this temple of the soul: Beith, the second letter of the Hebrew alphabet.

And to achieve this, one must cross the desert with the help of Guimel (three in Hebrew).

3 + 2 + 1 = 6 Vav is the six, the verticalized man who can make the link, unify heaven and earth to unify himself.

The background consists of a red and black image in three parts. Highly dynamic, the photograph evokes an explosion.

In front of it, in the center, stands a wooden stick. It is planted in a rock, which itself rests on sand. Its features are highlighted in gold. It appears crowned with an animal head. It is very similar to a carnyx, the Celtic war trumpet. Yet the form taking shape within it remains mysterious, archetypal.

Behind this head, there is an empty space, in the centre of what looks like a hand open towards the sky. It sits in the axis of the white light from the photograph, the heart of the explosion.

Access to the stick is blocked by an antique beam of planks in the foreground. The two parts of this beam are joined at the base by a metal piece. The upper part is burnt. The edges of the wood grain are gilded, standing out against the soot. The whole is U-shaped, evoking the consecrated horns of Knossos.

Three in the back, two in the front, one in the center. 3, 2, 1... like a countdown, a danced regression with the center as its destination.

Returning to Unity means going towards the Self in a great inner reversal. Going towards the Self means plunging into inner silence, entering within, returning to the home of body and spirit, this temple of the soul: Beith, the second letter of the Hebrew alphabet.

And to achieve this, one must cross the desert with the help of Guimel (three in Hebrew).

3 + 2 + 1 = 6 Vav is the six, the verticalized man who can make the link, unify heaven and earth to unify himself.

The background consists of a red and black image in three parts. Highly dynamic, the photograph evokes an explosion.

In front of it, in the center, stands a wooden stick. It is planted in a rock, which itself rests on sand. Its features are highlighted in gold. It appears crowned with an animal head. It is very similar to a carnyx, the Celtic war trumpet. Yet the form taking shape within it remains mysterious, archetypal.

Behind this head, there is an empty space, in the centre of what looks like a hand open towards the sky. It sits in the axis of the white light from the photograph, the heart of the explosion.

Access to the stick is blocked by an antique beam of planks in the foreground. The two parts of this beam are joined at the base by a metal piece. The upper part is burnt. The edges of the wood grain are gilded, standing out against the soot. The whole is U-shaped, evoking the consecrated horns of Knossos.

Three in the back, two in the front, one in the center. 3, 2, 1... like a countdown, a danced regression with the center as its destination.

Returning to Unity means going towards the Self in a great inner reversal. Going towards the Self means plunging into inner silence, entering within, returning to the home of body and spirit, this temple of the soul: Beith, the second letter of the Hebrew alphabet.

And to achieve this, one must cross the desert with the help of Guimel (three in Hebrew).

3 + 2 + 1 = 6 Vav is the six, the verticalized man who can make the link, unify heaven and earth to unify himself.

The background consists of a red and black image in three parts. Highly dynamic, the photograph evokes an explosion.

In front of it, in the center, stands a wooden stick. It is planted in a rock, which itself rests on sand. Its features are highlighted in gold. It appears crowned with an animal head. It is very similar to a carnyx, the Celtic war trumpet. Yet the form taking shape within it remains mysterious, archetypal.

Behind this head, there is an empty space, in the centre of what looks like a hand open towards the sky. It sits in the axis of the white light from the photograph, the heart of the explosion.

Access to the stick is blocked by an antique beam of planks in the foreground. The two parts of this beam are joined at the base by a metal piece. The upper part is burnt. The edges of the wood grain are gilded, standing out against the soot. The whole is U-shaped, evoking the consecrated horns of Knossos.

Three in the back, two in the front, one in the center. 3, 2, 1... like a countdown, a danced regression with the center as its destination.

Returning to Unity means going towards the Self in a great inner reversal. Going towards the Self means plunging into inner silence, entering within, returning to the home of body and spirit, this temple of the soul: Beith, the second letter of the Hebrew alphabet.

And to achieve this, one must cross the desert with the help of Guimel (three in Hebrew).

3 + 2 + 1 = 6 Vav is the six, the verticalized man who can make the link, unify heaven and earth to unify himself.

Go Toward Yourself!

In a world more than ever disconnected from reality, we live in inner exile, cut off from our true nature.

To set out on the quest for Self is to reconnect with that invisible part which links us to the Living. It is to become the actor of our humanity by putting an end to the slavery of the soul. It is to consecrate our life to something greater than oneself.

This implies leaving the known to cross relentlessly the desert of existence, this labyrinth. Going from land to land by letting go of everything, in order to move from acquired consciousness to greater consciousness.

This is the symbolic invitation of the Exit from Egypt recounted in the Book of Exodus. The first of all my installations, it opened the path to those that followed.

Oiled acacia, fir, steel, finger painting,
gold leaf, sandstone, sand
176×100 cm, 3 mounted photos 130×180 cm – 2023

The Journey Through the Desert

The desert is the place of the stripping of the heart. It describes the experience of inner emptiness of the being who accepts to depart from itself. For this being must accept to die to what was, to cross its fears and the unknown, in hope of reaching its Promised Land.

Only the individual who realizes that he is nothing in exile, far from his true being, and who remembers that he is composed of stardust, is ready to endure the burning ordeal of the desert.

In this quest, he is aided by a vaster consciousness that guides: the camel, Guimel in Hebrew, whose piece of wood takes up the form... Guimel knows the way and possesses sufficient reserves of water. One can also see in it the Chinese ideogram designating man, called to set himself in motion to realize himself.

A beam rises, at the end of which a wooden form is fixed. Or perhaps it is bronze.

This form is slender, as if shaped from a material that has been twisted, stretched.

It evokes movement, it invites to movement.

Behind it, a Japanese watercolor, or a sketch. A human silhouette emerges in profile, floating in the air like a specter. It carries a backpack. Its gaze turns toward the stars and the moon.

Acacia, fir, gilding, acrylic varnish
163×30 cm, framed photo 40×60 cm – 2023

Upon an old milky birch trunk rests a piece of wood.

It has the appearance of a mountain peak, atop which emerges a golden mass that stands out clearly from the rest. Could it be a volcano?

Its flank is covered in thick bark that contrasts with the velvety surface. The exposed parts of the wood reveal wave-like patterns dotted with aligned holes. It looks like a code deposited there.

Dot, dot, nothing, dot.

In the background of this scene, a sketched motif evokes a tornado.

Upon an old milky birch trunk rests a piece of wood.

It has the appearance of a mountain peak, atop which emerges a golden mass that stands out clearly from the rest. Could it be a volcano?

Its flank is covered in thick bark that contrasts with the velvety surface. The exposed parts of the wood reveal wave-like patterns dotted with aligned holes. It looks like a code deposited there.

Dot, dot, nothing, dot.

In the background of this scene, a sketched motif evokes a tornado.

Upon an old milky birch trunk rests a piece of wood.

It has the appearance of a mountain peak, atop which emerges a golden mass that stands out clearly from the rest. Could it be a volcano?

Its flank is covered in thick bark that contrasts with the velvety surface. The exposed parts of the wood reveal wave-like patterns dotted with aligned holes. It looks like a code deposited there.

Dot, dot, nothing, dot.

In the background of this scene, a sketched motif evokes a tornado.

Upon an old milky birch trunk rests a piece of wood.

It has the appearance of a mountain peak, atop which emerges a golden mass that stands out clearly from the rest. Could it be a volcano?

Its flank is covered in thick bark that contrasts with the velvety surface. The exposed parts of the wood reveal wave-like patterns dotted with aligned holes. It looks like a code deposited there.

Dot, dot, nothing, dot.

In the background of this scene, a sketched motif evokes a tornado.

Upon an old milky birch trunk rests a piece of wood.

It has the appearance of a mountain peak, atop which emerges a golden mass that stands out clearly from the rest. Could it be a volcano?

Its flank is covered in thick bark that contrasts with the velvety surface. The exposed parts of the wood reveal wave-like patterns dotted with aligned holes. It looks like a code deposited there.

Dot, dot, nothing, dot.

In the background of this scene, a sketched motif evokes a tornado.

Upon an old milky birch trunk rests a piece of wood.

It has the appearance of a mountain peak, atop which emerges a golden mass that stands out clearly from the rest. Could it be a volcano?

Its flank is covered in thick bark that contrasts with the velvety surface. The exposed parts of the wood reveal wave-like patterns dotted with aligned holes. It looks like a code deposited there.

Dot, dot, nothing, dot.

In the background of this scene, a sketched motif evokes a tornado.

The Principle

We all originate from the same Principle.

“This Principle, foundation of all created things, is ONE, and the created, the multiple, is called to become ONE,” said Annick de Souzenelle.

This indescribable force is movement. A mysterious code or language, it burst forth and has since been whirling, animating everything in its path.

At times it gives life, at times death. But ceaselessly, it recreates beings and things. Just as the top of the tornado is not closed, so too is death not an end in itself.

Life realizes beings by transforming them, provided they accept being fearlessly traversed by its Breath.

Oiled acacia, birch,
natural pigments, gold leaf and 24k gold
123×30 cm, framed photo 40×60 cm – 2023

As Above, So Below

« That which is below is like that which is above; and that which is above equals that which is below, to accomplish the miracle of the ONE thing. »

Emerald Tablet (anonymous treatise)

Man is called to face his inner demons. Here, it is the dragon of fairy tales, elsewhere it will be the Minotaur, the Leviathan, the Basilisk, or any other monster... Its counterpart of light is the Seraphim.

Only the power of the Sword allows one to see in these fearsome guardians of the threshold, not the enemy to be destroyed, but the adversary—the unaccomplished aspect of our being—to be integrated.

Then, the Sword pierces the demon and turns it, revealing its dimension of light, and delivering the knowledge that comes with it. This combat is a dance identical to the one Jacob performed with the Angel.

The two forms face each other in perfect axial symmetry.

Below, the dragon; above, the Seraph.

Acacia, sandstone
130×47 cm, framed photo 60×60 cm – 2023

Upon the stone plinth, impaled upon an iron rod, rests a tormented form, as if sculpted by the wind’s relentless breath.

In the background, a elongated, reclining image evokes, in stylized grace, the bare torso of a woman, bathed in muted light.

The Naked Truth

Only a pure and loving heart, willing to descend into its inner darkness to confront the demons that inhabit it, can approach the truth until it reaches the intoxication born of the joy of knowing it.

It will then know that truth is neither this nor that, but that it is as ineffable as it is unknowable, simple and naked.

This ecstasy is the fruit of “a woman’s work, and a child’s play.”

A sustained labor of slow fecundation and maturation through successive purifications and inner mutations.

Operations accessible only to the being who accepts to play this game with the humility and simplicity of a child.

Oiled acacia, sandstone
143×33×20 cm, mounted photo 30×90 cm – 2023

The Fiery Vav

Master Eckhart ceaselessly calls each soul to depart from itself in a work of disidentification.

Carl Gustav Jung designates this movement as the process of psychological individuation, an alchemical process of the verticalization of Being.

The Phoenix, Bird of Fire, is the archetype of this phenomenon when it dies to itself to be reborn, purified.

The sixth letter of the Hebrew alphabet, the Vav, which appears here in the central form of the image, symbolizes the link established by humanity between its inner Heaven and the Earth when it verticalizes itself.

A luminous form, yellow turning to red, upon a field of black.

A Bird of Fire, like a Phoenix.

A column at the center, like a spinal column from which rays of light would burst forth. The entire body radiates, until it bursts into flame.

One can make out a head tilted to the left at the end of this long column.

The whole evokes a staff surmounted by a head, or a Vav, the sixth letter of the Hebrew alphabet.

Photograph mounted on panel, 80x120 cm – 2023

On an oak beam rests a pebble. Upon this pebble, a dark and tortured silhouette: a figure seated in the lotus position.

Between its 'hands' (which merge with the rest of the body), a golden flame. Upon closer inspection, a concentrated face can be discerned.

It is a human form.

It seems to be completing something difficult, which has demanded great effort...

It is the Opus Rubrum, the Rubedo.

The golden flame is the result, a sort of philosopher's stone.

The exterior of the form is the color of Judean earth and calcined umber.

The interior of the form is purple. Gold dust seems to emerge progressively.

Behind this form, which could also evoke the Hindu god of wisdom, Ganesha, or an African sage, a red and black image. Like another silhouette, dancing, that of a will-o'-the-wisp.

The aura of the character?

On an oak beam rests a pebble. Upon this pebble, a dark and tortured silhouette: a figure seated in the lotus position.

Between its 'hands' (which merge with the rest of the body), a golden flame. Upon closer inspection, a concentrated face can be discerned.

It is a human form.

It seems to be completing something difficult, which has demanded great effort...

It is the Opus Rubrum, the Rubedo.

The golden flame is the result, a sort of philosopher's stone.

The exterior of the form is the color of Judean earth and calcined umber.

The interior of the form is purple. Gold dust seems to emerge progressively.

Behind this form, which could also evoke the Hindu god of wisdom, Ganesha, or an African sage, a red and black image. Like another silhouette, dancing, that of a will-o'-the-wisp.

The aura of the character?

On an oak beam rests a pebble. Upon this pebble, a dark and tortured silhouette: a figure seated in the lotus position.

Between its 'hands' (which merge with the rest of the body), a golden flame. Upon closer inspection, a concentrated face can be discerned.

It is a human form.

It seems to be completing something difficult, which has demanded great effort...

It is the Opus Rubrum, the Rubedo.

The golden flame is the result, a sort of philosopher's stone.

The exterior of the form is the color of Judean earth and calcined umber.

The interior of the form is purple. Gold dust seems to emerge progressively.

Behind this form, which could also evoke the Hindu god of wisdom, Ganesha, or an African sage, a red and black image. Like another silhouette, dancing, that of a will-o'-the-wisp.

The aura of the character?

On an oak beam rests a pebble. Upon this pebble, a dark and tortured silhouette: a figure seated in the lotus position.

Between its 'hands' (which merge with the rest of the body), a golden flame. Upon closer inspection, a concentrated face can be discerned.

It is a human form.

It seems to be completing something difficult, which has demanded great effort...

It is the Opus Rubrum, the Rubedo.

The golden flame is the result, a sort of philosopher's stone.

The exterior of the form is the color of Judean earth and calcined umber.

The interior of the form is purple. Gold dust seems to emerge progressively.

Behind this form, which could also evoke the Hindu god of wisdom, Ganesha, or an African sage, a red and black image. Like another silhouette, dancing, that of a will-o'-the-wisp.

The aura of the character?

On an oak beam rests a pebble. Upon this pebble, a dark and tortured silhouette: a figure seated in the lotus position.

Between its 'hands' (which merge with the rest of the body), a golden flame. Upon closer inspection, a concentrated face can be discerned.

It is a human form.

It seems to be completing something difficult, which has demanded great effort...

It is the Opus Rubrum, the Rubedo.

The golden flame is the result, a sort of philosopher's stone.

The exterior of the form is the color of Judean earth and calcined umber.

The interior of the form is purple. Gold dust seems to emerge progressively.

Behind this form, which could also evoke the Hindu god of wisdom, Ganesha, or an African sage, a red and black image. Like another silhouette, dancing, that of a will-o'-the-wisp.

The aura of the character?

On an oak beam rests a pebble. Upon this pebble, a dark and tortured silhouette: a figure seated in the lotus position.

Between its 'hands' (which merge with the rest of the body), a golden flame. Upon closer inspection, a concentrated face can be discerned.

It is a human form.

It seems to be completing something difficult, which has demanded great effort...

It is the Opus Rubrum, the Rubedo.

The golden flame is the result, a sort of philosopher's stone.

The exterior of the form is the color of Judean earth and calcined umber.

The interior of the form is purple. Gold dust seems to emerge progressively.

Behind this form, which could also evoke the Hindu god of wisdom, Ganesha, or an African sage, a red and black image. Like another silhouette, dancing, that of a will-o'-the-wisp.

The aura of the character?

On an oak beam rests a pebble. Upon this pebble, a dark and tortured silhouette: a figure seated in the lotus position.

Between its 'hands' (which merge with the rest of the body), a golden flame. Upon closer inspection, a concentrated face can be discerned.

It is a human form.

It seems to be completing something difficult, which has demanded great effort...

It is the Opus Rubrum, the Rubedo.

The golden flame is the result, a sort of philosopher's stone.

The exterior of the form is the color of Judean earth and calcined umber.

The interior of the form is purple. Gold dust seems to emerge progressively.

Behind this form, which could also evoke the Hindu god of wisdom, Ganesha, or an African sage, a red and black image. Like another silhouette, dancing, that of a will-o'-the-wisp.

The aura of the character?

On an oak beam rests a pebble. Upon this pebble, a dark and tortured silhouette: a figure seated in the lotus position.

Between its 'hands' (which merge with the rest of the body), a golden flame. Upon closer inspection, a concentrated face can be discerned.

It is a human form.

It seems to be completing something difficult, which has demanded great effort...

It is the Opus Rubrum, the Rubedo.

The golden flame is the result, a sort of philosopher's stone.

The exterior of the form is the color of Judean earth and calcined umber.

The interior of the form is purple. Gold dust seems to emerge progressively.

Behind this form, which could also evoke the Hindu god of wisdom, Ganesha, or an African sage, a red and black image. Like another silhouette, dancing, that of a will-o'-the-wisp.

The aura of the character?

Myriem - The Feminine of Being

It is a Black Virgin such as is sung in the Song of Songs (1:5): 'I am black, yet lovely.'

One discerns her face, grimacing in concentration. She is absorbed in the Opus ad Rubrum. Gold begins to dawn beneath the purple.

It is true Eros that lends its intensity to the fire of transmutation.

The dancing silhouette in the background forms an aura, a mystic pantomime, a wink to the witches of the Middle Ages—easy scapegoats delivered to popular vindictiveness in times of distress.

Oiled acacia, pebble, oak, natural pigments, 24k gold
36×24 cm, framed photo 50×50 cm – 2024

Shin – The Burning Bush

" The bush was all ablaze, yet the bush was not consumed."

— Exodus 3:2

"It is there [on the mountain of Sinai], before embarking upon the great journey of liberation from the shadows of bondage, that Moses lived the experience of the Burning Bush."

"The Burning Bush is the symbol of the Tree of Life kindled by the Fire of Life."

— From The Symbolism of the Human Body, by Annick de Souzenelle

It looks like a bronze sculpture. A triangular shape, furrowed with dark hollows and golden ridges.

A touch of red and gold dust is present in the black furrows.

The whole evokes the flames of a fire, a block of flames, with multiple flamelets.

This 'Fire' rests on a fine, slender sandstone stone that perfectly matches its base. It is no thicker than the fire itself.

In the background, fine lines, like threads of fabric or branches. It is barely suggested in a vignette. It looks like a sumi-e, one of those Japanese watercolors with Chinese ink.

It looks like a bronze sculpture. A triangular shape, furrowed with dark hollows and golden ridges.

A touch of red and gold dust is present in the black furrows.

The whole evokes the flames of a fire, a block of flames, with multiple flamelets.

This 'Fire' rests on a fine, slender sandstone stone that perfectly matches its base. It is no thicker than the fire itself.

In the background, fine lines, like threads of fabric or branches. It is barely suggested in a vignette. It looks like a sumi-e, one of those Japanese watercolors with Chinese ink.

It looks like a bronze sculpture. A triangular shape, furrowed with dark hollows and golden ridges.

A touch of red and gold dust is present in the black furrows.

The whole evokes the flames of a fire, a block of flames, with multiple flamelets.

This 'Fire' rests on a fine, slender sandstone stone that perfectly matches its base. It is no thicker than the fire itself.

In the background, fine lines, like threads of fabric or branches. It is barely suggested in a vignette. It looks like a sumi-e, one of those Japanese watercolors with Chinese ink.

It looks like a bronze sculpture. A triangular shape, furrowed with dark hollows and golden ridges.

A touch of red and gold dust is present in the black furrows.

The whole evokes the flames of a fire, a block of flames, with multiple flamelets.

This 'Fire' rests on a fine, slender sandstone stone that perfectly matches its base. It is no thicker than the fire itself.

In the background, fine lines, like threads of fabric or branches. It is barely suggested in a vignette. It looks like a sumi-e, one of those Japanese watercolors with Chinese ink.

It looks like a bronze sculpture. A triangular shape, furrowed with dark hollows and golden ridges.

A touch of red and gold dust is present in the black furrows.

The whole evokes the flames of a fire, a block of flames, with multiple flamelets.

This 'Fire' rests on a fine, slender sandstone stone that perfectly matches its base. It is no thicker than the fire itself.

In the background, fine lines, like threads of fabric or branches. It is barely suggested in a vignette. It looks like a sumi-e, one of those Japanese watercolors with Chinese ink.

It looks like a bronze sculpture. A triangular shape, furrowed with dark hollows and golden ridges.

A touch of red and gold dust is present in the black furrows.

The whole evokes the flames of a fire, a block of flames, with multiple flamelets.

This 'Fire' rests on a fine, slender sandstone stone that perfectly matches its base. It is no thicker than the fire itself.

In the background, fine lines, like threads of fabric or branches. It is barely suggested in a vignette. It looks like a sumi-e, one of those Japanese watercolors with Chinese ink.

Fire-hardened oiled acacia, sandstone, 24k gold
146×35 cm, mounted photo 40×60 cm – 2025

The sculpture depicts a silver bird, its wings coated in burnt umber earth. It appears as if trapped in an oil slick.

Yet, one might also see a kind of butterfly, or an ear.

In any case, this element seems ensnared in the matter.

The Five States of the Soul

Our condition ensnares us, much like a bird trapped in an oil slick.

Restoring breath and lightness to the soul is achieved only at the cost of sustained and laborious effort, that 'woman's work' evoked above.

Bird, butterfly, ear: so many visible forms in this piece, and symbols relating to inner listening and the necessary mutations of the soul.

Fire-hardened oiled acacia, fir, Caplain (gold, platinum, palladium), burnt umber
146×35 cm, framed photos 62×42 cm – 2023

The Bow and the Arrow

Arise, my love, my fair one, and go toward yourself..."

— Song of Songs 2:13

This piece evokes the rising of desire, of Eros, unfolding in an immense aspiration of love.

It is also the Kundalini of the Indian mystical tradition, that energy, that Fire of Life, which runs along the spinal column and rises like a cobra.

At the center of each face, one discerns the form of a germ on one side, of a swaddled infant on the other. Both are called to grow and to launch forth as free beings with wings outstretched.

A slender form. Like an angel that has spread its wings while tearing itself from the ground.

One could also see a cobra ready to strike. Or a female nude swaying her hips.

A swaddled baby, or a sprout hatched at the center of the sculpture. The seed’s envelope tears and stretches lengthwise toward the light.

In the background, an image of fire, like two hands enveloping the angelic form.

Oiled acacia, pipeline, Judean bitumen, gold leaf

146×35 cm, mounted photo 40×70cm – 2023

Tsadé – The Nuptials

I felt that the sculpture resonated with the energy of the very mysterious eighteenth crowned letter of the Hebrew alphabet, Tsadé.

It represents the Divine seizing us in the union of the male principle of the Yod and the female principle of the Nun, one side harpooning the other. It is the experience lived by Noah during his ecstasy upon exiting the ark, after having accomplished the Great Work.

The piece consists of two interlocking parts, yet nothing else initially aligned with the direction of these symbolic nuptials.

Upon completing the coloring of the central part of the piece in red, while letting my fingers go where they willed, they drifted apart on the right side to reveal to me a fish head...

When one knows that Nun means 'the fish'... the circle was closed.

Oiled acacia, natural pigments and gilding, sandstone
130×28 cm, framed photo 40×60 cm – 2024

Jonah and the Leviathan

Jonah symbolizes man torn asunder between his spiritual aspirations and his fears. He must integrate the Leviathan, that monster of the depths representative of his inner darkness, so that the Divine may operate within him.

It was on a beautiful, sunlit day in 2006 that I beheld this small seabed sparkling with a thousand fires. A treasure chest seemed to have spilled its contents there, while fry patrolled around it.

The piece of wood is my Leviathan. At its center, Jonah is figured by the canvas tearing under the action of sapphire blue light—the same light found in the image alongside gold, ruby, and emerald. The point of gold, at the center of all, figures the birth of Jonah to Self.

A strange form, evoking a fish, is mounted on a beam. This is the Leviathan. It appears horned.

It is as if its entrails have parted open for the viewer, revealing a polychrome and plastic world of great beauty.

At its center, fabrics tear apart against a purple background. And at the heart of these fabrics, a golden point. This is Jonah's soul revealed by divine action, the primordial light of sapphire blue.

This blue appears in the background, vibrant with color. There is also gold, emerald, and ruby.

These elongated forms are fry patrolling around a treasure lining the seabed.

A strange form, evoking a fish, is mounted on a beam. This is the Leviathan. It appears horned.

It is as if its entrails have parted open for the viewer, revealing a polychrome and plastic world of great beauty.

At its center, fabrics tear apart against a purple background. And at the heart of these fabrics, a golden point. This is Jonah's soul revealed by divine action, the primordial light of sapphire blue.

This blue appears in the background, vibrant with color. There is also gold, emerald, and ruby.

These elongated forms are fry patrolling around a treasure lining the seabed.

A strange form, evoking a fish, is mounted on a beam. This is the Leviathan. It appears horned.

It is as if its entrails have parted open for the viewer, revealing a polychrome and plastic world of great beauty.

At its center, fabrics tear apart against a purple background. And at the heart of these fabrics, a golden point. This is Jonah's soul revealed by divine action, the primordial light of sapphire blue.

This blue appears in the background, vibrant with color. There is also gold, emerald, and ruby.

These elongated forms are fry patrolling around a treasure lining the seabed.

A strange form, evoking a fish, is mounted on a beam. This is the Leviathan. It appears horned.

It is as if its entrails have parted open for the viewer, revealing a polychrome and plastic world of great beauty.

At its center, fabrics tear apart against a purple background. And at the heart of these fabrics, a golden point. This is Jonah's soul revealed by divine action, the primordial light of sapphire blue.

This blue appears in the background, vibrant with color. There is also gold, emerald, and ruby.

These elongated forms are fry patrolling around a treasure lining the seabed.

A strange form, evoking a fish, is mounted on a beam. This is the Leviathan. It appears horned.

It is as if its entrails have parted open for the viewer, revealing a polychrome and plastic world of great beauty.

At its center, fabrics tear apart against a purple background. And at the heart of these fabrics, a golden point. This is Jonah's soul revealed by divine action, the primordial light of sapphire blue.

This blue appears in the background, vibrant with color. There is also gold, emerald, and ruby.

These elongated forms are fry patrolling around a treasure lining the seabed.

A strange form, evoking a fish, is mounted on a beam. This is the Leviathan. It appears horned.

It is as if its entrails have parted open for the viewer, revealing a polychrome and plastic world of great beauty.

At its center, fabrics tear apart against a purple background. And at the heart of these fabrics, a golden point. This is Jonah's soul revealed by divine action, the primordial light of sapphire blue.

This blue appears in the background, vibrant with color. There is also gold, emerald, and ruby.

These elongated forms are fry patrolling around a treasure lining the seabed.

A strange form, evoking a fish, is mounted on a beam. This is the Leviathan. It appears horned.

It is as if its entrails have parted open for the viewer, revealing a polychrome and plastic world of great beauty.

At its center, fabrics tear apart against a purple background. And at the heart of these fabrics, a golden point. This is Jonah's soul revealed by divine action, the primordial light of sapphire blue.

This blue appears in the background, vibrant with color. There is also gold, emerald, and ruby.

These elongated forms are fry patrolling around a treasure lining the seabed.

A strange form, evoking a fish, is mounted on a beam. This is the Leviathan. It appears horned.

It is as if its entrails have parted open for the viewer, revealing a polychrome and plastic world of great beauty.

At its center, fabrics tear apart against a purple background. And at the heart of these fabrics, a golden point. This is Jonah's soul revealed by divine action, the primordial light of sapphire blue.

This blue appears in the background, vibrant with color. There is also gold, emerald, and ruby.

These elongated forms are fry patrolling around a treasure lining the seabed.

Acacia, fibers, pigments incl. lapis lazuli, 24k gold, 18th-century oak
40×150 cm, framed photo 90×60 cm – 2023

This mountain seems torn from the earthly plinth, suspended in levitation.

It is a gray and black massif, steep and rugged, with ridges of silver.

A misty mountain landscape echoes it in the background.

The whole exhales peace and harmony.

The Groundless Ground of the Soul

"In the purest and noblest part that the soul possesses, in its ground, [its] deepest nature, [is a place] where no image enters, where no action, understanding, representation is found, neither of itself nor of anything else.

In [this groundless ground, lies] a silent center. In it resides the peaceful stillness that allows for the welcoming of that birth wherein God speaks His Word..."

— Meister Eckhart, Sermon 101

Acacia, fibers, pigments including lapis lazuli, 24k gold, 18th-century oak
40×150 cm, mounted photo 90×60 cm – 2023

Hope

"The light shines in the darkness."

— John 1:5

One must have advanced sufficiently into the labyrinth of the soul, into the heart of the deepest darkness, to discover there, precisely, the vast expanses of a limitless fullness.

A nocturnal landscape. Colored lights, like living, luminous characters in the shape of strokes launching themselves toward the sky.

Photograph mounted on panel, 105x70 cm - 2025