Sigil
At the beginning of 2020 I took the decision to use my middle name, Dylan - I was formerly known as Kevin - and to create a website for my renamed practice. I worked on making a symbol that would represent the work. Normally this would be called a ‘logo’, but I thought of it as a sigil (Latin sigillum, ‘seal’). This term, from alchemy and magic, means ‘a pictorial representation of intention’.
It represents the letters ‘db’, enclosed in an oval. The letters are in the form of a hanging plant, or a root or tuber. This reflects the organic, living, and growing; as well as the value of darkness, dream and depth. Our manic culture values constant progress, expansion and ascent, and ignores the other half of the circle of life, with disastrous consequences for life on earth, and of course for our psychological health. By acknowledging what is usually disavowed, we can bring things full circle, and permit ourselves to heal and recover from the sicknesses that modernity creates in us.
Early sketch
I was also inspired by the tantric contemporary art of Rajasthan, as featured in Tantra Song, a book of images collected by the poet Franck André Jamme. These paintings are created to be meditated on daily, so that the sacred forms are allowed to possess and transform one’s consciousness. The oval shape here represents Shiva, the masculine form of God.
From Franck André Jamme ‘Tantra Song’,
Siglio Press, Los Angeles 2011
However, for me this form represents the relational space that contains two people in close conversation. Human beings exist and survive only in relationship. A ‘therapeutic relationship’ is so-called because it’s an experience of relationship that is supportive, curious and creative. This repairs, in a way that cannot be fully explained, the damage caused by inadequate relationships that are unsupportive, judgemental or controlling.
In this space of transformation, changes occur that would not happen within an individual’s personal consciousness.
