Probing the subterranean depths within, my recent works focus on the descent to the underworld that is integral to the monomyth (“hero’s journey”). The passage of thresholds, trials, encounters, and symbolic death all find their place in this katabasis mythology. These drawings explore a quest into the cave of the mind through a combination of archetypal symbolism and uncanny aesthetics. They are inspired by narrative themes in ancient mythologies in which “the hero” undergoes a journey of a transformative nature and must confront the unknown within the depths of their psyche, where the active darkness they encounter is one that stares back, alive within all our imaginings.

During the initial phase of Orphic and shamanic initiation, the dark zone, located in the bowels of the earth beyond the reach of sunlight, has been sought out for its potential to evoke visions and insight. By initiating and integrating the polarities within us—between the oppositions of the Dionysian and Apollonian, instinct and intellect, and emotion and reason—maybe it is possible to glimpse a reflection of our inner selves.