Archetypal Meditations

The Louisiana landscape, nature, dreams, the female body, the moon and the “archetypal stories and mythologies” that passed through time are spiritual and metaphysical forces that give expression to Lafayette artist and filmmaker Cayla Zeek’s art.

At first glance, her paintings of waterfowl, female figures and South Louisiana landscapes seem straightforward. But that’s only on the surface. Her art dives deep into her own psyche.

“I’m really into exploring the nature of dreams,” Zeek says. “I study a lot of Jungian analyst books or podcasts. I try to write down my dreams, and I’m really into tarot as a meditation tool and love the archetypal imagery of it. Nature. Motherhood. The moon. The human body.”

For instance, her “Flora and Fauna” and female figure “Dissolution” paintings are immediately recognizable for their intensely bright colors and fluid lines. They are part of what she describes as her love of the female form and wetland birds such as roseate spoonbills. Most importantly, she wants viewers to see “the power of dreams and the beauty of nature,” which she says empower her and, hopefully, other “aspiring” women artists.

While her “Flora and Fauna” paintings conjure up images of nature and the South Louisiana landscape that inspire her, Zeek’s “Dissolution” series on the female figure, which at first glance appear simply as sensually posed female nudes, is on a different philosophical plane and seemingly more self-searching and introspective.

“I was studying a lot about alchemy in college,” Zeek says. “And one of the stages of alchemy is called dissolution, where a solid substance is turned to liquid. It was often symbolized in alchemical archetypal imagery as a woman’s body being boiled in water with a bird erupting from her head, often the bird was a swan. I ran with this imagery creating a series of women with wetland birds erupting from their heads often depicted inside the home. But I have some that are surrounded by the Louisiana landscape and bodies of water.”

In alchemy, she continues, the dissolution stage “is a time of introspection and acknowledging parts of oneself that were previously rejected or hidden.”

That introspection and exploration through her art has given her a voice. “I feel like there is something in creating a work of art that sends a message through time,” she says. “It’s in the messages I’ve found from other artists that give me faith and strength to live and continue.”

Taking it a bit deeper, Zeek says painting also gives her a “euphoric” sense of happiness. “I’m so happy to be painting and how it’s happening on the page that I’ll cry while painting,” she says. “It’s like total catharsis.”

That “catharsis” continues to bring her recognition. Zeek, a lifelong Lafayette resident and graduate of the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, is building an impressive career in art. In 2017 Lafayette’s Festival International de Louisiane invited her to create an original work of art for the festival’s poster. At the time, she was the youngest artist to receive that invitation. Two years later, she was chosen to design the poster for the 2019 Washington D.C. Mardi Gras Ball.

In addition, Zeek’s paintings, films and blue-toned cyanotype photographs have appeared in juried art shows throughout South Louisiana, including the Acadiana Center for the Arts, the George Rodrigue Foundation of the Arts, and the Hilliard Art Museum in Lafayette. One of her lithographs is now in the collection of the Alexandria Museum of Art. And then there are her commissioned works, such as her mural at the Baton Rouge Zoo and another in downtown Lafayette that celebrates CODOFIL, Louisiana’s French language and culture.

In 2015, Zeek expanded her parallel world in art when she launched her successful hand-illustrated stationery business under the title of her middle name ­— Mattea. Her designs have appeared in shows at the Javits Center in New York City.

When not painting, entering shows, giving workshops, gardening, producing video films, designing stationery or reading Jung, the 34-year-old artist and former art teacher plays music, acts in local plays, and studies Louisiana culture and the French language. Zeek’s life is one immersed in the arts.

“Sometimes I’m channeling and not knowing what is going to happen and that’s a really exciting and consuming feeling,” she says. “That’s when I feel like I am creating disciplined magic.”

For more information, visit caylazeek.com.