Baton Rouge Artist Margaret Humphris

“Up for Air (Believe)”

The Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung, the father of analytical psychology, once said a dream “is a little hidden door in the innermost and most sacred recesses of the soul.” Baton Rouge artist Margaret Humphris, through her dreamlike paintings, gives viewers a glimpse behind her “hidden door.”

At first glance, Humphris’ paintings seem like pages lifted from a medieval or Renaissance illuminated manuscript with their beautiful and colorfully painted detailed borders surrounding ethereal images that often invoke some inner spiritual message.

And they do. A conversation with Humphris, a retired clinical social worker at LSU Mental Health Service, fittingly turns to a discussion about her art and Carl Jung and his philosophy that says we all have a “drive toward wholeness.” Humphris’ dreams and paintings help inform her drive to wholeness.

“It’s a form of prayer, I think,” says Humphris, explaining her continuing drive to create art. “It’s how I keep myself in balance. I think it’s that drive to keep pushing oneself to express the joy and mystery of being alive in this world.” And then she adds with a little chuckle, “It’s also a great excuse to play with color.”

“Down”

Humphris, who was born in Jackson, Mississippi and grew up in Virginia and New Orleans, has played with color most of her life even as a child. Later, while working on degrees in art at LSU, she developed an interest in art therapy as a career. With that in mind, she went on to get a master’s in therapy and social work. Degrees in hand, Humphris spent the next eight years at the United Way in Denham Springs and another 22 years at LSU Mental Health Service. All the while, Humphris continued to paint. The illuminated “manuscripts” came later.

Although she tried for years to perfect the style, it didn’t work. Not until the death of her brother in 2015 did she find that voice. It began with a personal and spiritual journey, a misty island and King Arthur.

“Falling”

“When my brother passed, we were driving up to Virginia,” she says, recalling that awakening moment. “It was a rainy day and we were in South Carolina, crossing this big lake. I saw this distant island lying in a foggy mist. And then suddenly like a lightning bolt, I said that’s Avalon from the myth of King Arthur. I was suddenly overwhelmed by this comfort in knowing my brother was okay because he was in Avalon. That was it. That series of paintings had to be done as illuminated manuscripts because they had to be done in gold. The gold symbolized the sacredness of the moment and the love.”

As to the source of the imagery in her paintings, she says they simply appear in her imagination, in dreams, or perhaps from a poem she read, a movie or magazine article, or from a conversation overheard in a grocery store. True to her studies in psychology and the teachings of Carl Jung, dreams are the richest resource for her images. She records them in her journal.

“They are personal because they come directly from the subconscious,” she says. “It’s definitely me, and it’s universal because we are all human, and we all go through very similar experiences. We will all have loss. And we will all have joy and sorrow.”

“Gift from a Star”

Humphris’ paintings usually come in a series that tell stories. Although the paintings could stand alone, she describes each as a “word in a sentence.” Symbols in the illuminated borders are part of that story. For example, she often includes images of birds for, as she says, “they are magical and spiritual messengers that connect heaven and earth.”

In her series titled “Unfinished Journey,” for example, six illuminated “manuscript” paintings tell the story of life’s ups and downs and life out of balance. These paintings, like most of her work, are about “transformation and spiritual growth” and moving from one phase of life to another.

“We can’t move into the next phase of life without letting some things go, as painful as that might be,” she says. “If we keep trudging along, there may be this amazing gift and insight that come from something so much bigger than me. I want that image to be a gift that opens your mind and your brain and your heart. That doesn’t mean we can dance through every storm, but if we can manage to do our best, one day the storm will pass.”

Although Humphris intentionally includes vague spiritual undertones in her paintings that are meaningful to her, she enjoys listening to what viewers say about her work.

“I like to leave it open for what others see in them,” she says. “I want them to feel what it’s like to be in the presence of something powerful and how to make sense of that.”

But most of all, she continues, “I want viewers to question and see the joy in being alive and seeing the beauty.”

Perhaps Jung would approve.

Exhibits

Cajun | Nympheus Luminansis: Water Lilies of Light. Paintings by Laurence Saunois based on Monet’s water lilies at Giverny, Sept. 12 through Jan. 3. Historic City Hall, Lake Charles. cityoflakecharles.com

Central | 39th September Competition. Juried international contemporary art competition, through Oct. 10. Alexandria Museum of Art. themuseum.org 

NOLA | The Moss Mystique: Southern Women and Newcomb Pottery. Newcomb Pottery and ideas of place in the South, through Dec. 4. Newcomb Art Museum of Tulane. newcombartmuseum.tulane.edu

North | Grounds for Departure: A Historic House, An Art Museum. Features art engaging with the museum’s architecture, through Oct. 31. Masur Museum of Art, masurmuseum.org 

River Parishes | The South’s Most Elusive Artist: Walter Inglis Anderson. Artworks drawn from the Walter Anderson Museum and family, Sept. 17 through Jan. 3. LSU Museum of Art, Baton Rouge. lsumoa.org