Intuitive Portraiture
"your life-dream through
clairvoyant illustration"
"Breakfast
with Jung"
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The Artist
INTUITIVE PORTRAITURE is the brainchild of David J. Nagy. Though trained as an artist, family and other responsibilities kept his art on the back burner for many years, until a series of cathartic events caused David to once again turn to his passion, for comfort and for inspiration.
Working instinctively, he began a series which came to be titled "I Saw Salvation on my Toast," chronicling his journey through the changes taking place. When he reflected on the series, it became clear that what at first appeared as a disparate group of images turned out to be significant characters and events from his life. The first Intuitive Portrait, entitled "Jennys Float", showed that this was true for every subject, not just himself. Although it took him a while to get his head around it, David came to realize that he was working clairvoyantly.
From here sprang the realization that his work was guided in a way that allowed him to see what was beneath the surface of the portrait subject. Subjects' descriptions of the process have ranged from fascinating to revealing and even life-changing. The process itself is continuously evolving, beginning as single-stage portraits done on Ranger-board ovals, to the two-stage 'Change a Drawing, Change Your Life' option available now.
Some words from David:
"I see myself as a messenger. My purpose is to show the subject the wealth of who they are, in a creative sense, and to reveal to them their divine connection to spirit (and spiritual assistance)."
"The things I draw are not mine, they are a way to illustrate the power a person has available to them in their own life. Once interpreted, portraits provide a 'cut-to-the-chase' clarity on your present life-dream. They're about connecting on a level that goes beyond how we see ourselves and our judgements of ourselves and each other, and use a language that everyone can understand, each in his or her own way."
"Besides Intuitve Portraiture, I also do dreamwork and work with animal totems. I've written a book called "Little Wolf, Black Feather" describing my own transformative experiences with soul retrieval, dreamwork, journeying and channeling as a means of illustrating the benefits and accessibility of the inherent wisdom we all have available to us."
Some words from clients:
"I believe this picture is a true representation of my inner world, and I find it amazing how accurate David's intuition is - since he knew nothing about me before drawing my portrait, and we were in different time zones (different continents) while doing my reading, it's a proof that there's more to our beings than science has proven so far." Bernadett Blummer, Australia (portrait done using Skype)
"It was beautiful to see my spirit guide animal as part of my portrait. I've been receiving a lot of messages from the hawk lately, and it is far more personal to me than you can ever know. Also in my portrait was the symbol of a nickname for me that only a few people know about...There were many other details that resonated with me. I appreciate it so much and have gotten far more out of it than I can possibly tell you. I enjoyed the process so much and just hanging with you in your light for that hour was a pleasure in itself." Amber Nunez, USA (portrait done using Skype)
ANSWERS:
(to some commonly asked questions)
What is intuitive portraiture?
Using clairvoyance, I intuit and draw images representative of your life that are normally contained within your subconscious - I produce your portrait just from listening to the sound of your voice.
Since you want as little information from me as possible, what do I talk about during a sitting?
I suggest that you read a story aloud to me; it doesn't really matter what, as long as it isn't anything you've written yourself (it can be the label of a soupcan, or equations from a textbook, if you like).
Are you reading my mind during the portrait sitting?
No. Looking for imagery in your portrait is actually a much slower and far more gruelling process. Also, because the images that appear are 'dream-like', they're also somewhat cryptic; it's only through consultation with the portrait subject that the relevance of the imagery is revealed. In that way, your privacy is assured. You're never under any obligation to share the interpretation of any image that you'd rather keep private.
Besides being an interesting picture, what are they good for?
It can be used as an illustrative tool, allowing the subject to see the blocks that may be keeping them from realizing their highest and best self, and it provides the guidance they need to move through those challenges.
Because (for example) they often illustrate family dynamics (including 'inter-generational' ones), portraits can offer a good schematic for seeing which relationships have most influenced you in coming to believe who you 'think' you are today. Understanding the unconscious energies that motivate us is an incredibly powerful tool for enabling us to live more lucidly, to remember who are (~were) before the baggage got piled on.
And, because troubling events can be hidden in our bodies as stuck emotional energies, having a portrait done to effect change in those areas will help keep them from manifesting as physical ailments later - think of it as preventative health care.
The best thing is, besides revealing 'what ails you', your portrait presents information pertinent to your healing in the form of (for example) animal 'medicine' that your guides/helpers intend that you assimilate, to aid you in your journey of self-empowerment.
How does it work?
I believe that everyone has a 'higher self' - a part of you that is directly connected to spirit. Everyone also has guides that work with them - spiritual beings that you made a deal with before you incarnated into this life who agreed to assist you in your present life-dream. Think of intuitive portraiture as my guides having a conversation with your guides about what might help you on your path to enlightenment (don't worry, whether or not you hold these ideas as personal beliefs is irrelevant to the success of your portrait).
After preparing the background of your portrait, I see images in it in much the same way as you do when you look at clouds... first it might look like a horse, then that same cloud looks like a cow, then a bus, and then something else. Essentially, my guides give me a 'nudge' to say, "Stop there; it's a bus!"
Does past-life stuff come up in portraits?
Although it does come up, portraits are rarely interpreted for their past-life content. Personally, I believe that everything you need to know for your own personal growth can be revealed to you by considering your present life-dream.
Now that you've mentioned it like eight times, what do you mean by a 'life-dream'?
As T. de Chardin put it, ""We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience". Dream states and our true spiritual states are very closely related. It's the clumsy physicality of our earthly perceptions that hinder us in the realization that we are incredibly powerful spiritual beings, capable of manifesting whatever we desire.
Just as lucid dreaming can (for example) empower us and help us to overcome a pre-conditioned defeatist attitude (I have a friend who overcame his fear of public speaking by practicing during lucid dream-states), changing imagery in your portrait has the same effect (not only on your psyche, but also) on your spiritual being and, subsequently, in the life-dream that you interpret as being your 'real' day-to-day life.
Why do some of the images look like cartoons?
As most of our 'limiting' experiences occur in childhood, it's these images in our life-dream that would benefit the most from transformative change. It stands to reason that these child-like parts of ourselves would relate better to a cartoony character than an image rendered from a more 'adult' perspective (who didn't like to watch cartoons as a kid?) Images related to disturbing influences or events especially are often illustrated in this format when our guides feel that they'll otherwise be difficult for the subject to accept.
Do you do animal portraits... children's portraits?
Animal portraits, yes...
When I started doing intuitive portraits, I said I wouldn't do pets, but I softened on that after I did one. I've come to realize what incredible spiritual beings they are in their own right; they don't come into our lives accidentally!
Children's portraits, (generally,) no...
Mostly because of issues related to consent and awareness... I need to be certain that the portrait is genuinely being done on behalf of the subject (and not a parent).
Will stuff come up that I don't want to look at?
The short answer is, 'no'; because if you're not ready to 'see' it, you won't. In their infinite wisdom, our guides (yours and mine) will not have me illustrate anything that they do not feel you can handle. That said, they will sometimes have me illustrate things that you may not be ready to recognize in the moment, but that they foresee as being valuable and acceptable to you at a later time.The beauty of it is that you can put your portrait away and look at it only when you're ready.
Privacy...?
If you desire, your identity will remain confidential; I will not publish/post a literal interpretation of your portrait (that identifies you as the subject) anywhere without your permission.
The PROCESS:
The intuitive portraiture process consists of three parts:
- the initial portrait 'sitting' (voice-only, 1 hour max).
- in-studio production of the portrait.
- a post-production consultation during which the finished portrait is viewed and analysed with the subject.
Although I occasionally do portrait sittings in person, I prefer to do them using the phone or - when calling internationally - using Skype (I only use the audio option; I find visuals too distracting).
During the sitting, I recommend that you reveal as little personal information as possible; at the same time, I require that I can hear your voice, so I suggest reading something aloud (preferably something that you haven't written yourself). As you read, I'll very basically prepare the background of the portrait by drawing a simple, even tone over the entire (paper) surface. Once the surface is prepared, I work on the portrait in-studio, pulling images out of the previously prepared background. At this stage, I try not to 'think' about what I'm doing, because if I allow my rational mind to try to make sense of the imagery, I cant see it as its meant to come out (as the guides I work with are providing it to me).
Once I've finished the portrait, I consult with the subject again. It is only through consultation with the subject that the relevance of the characters is revealed. While I might express feelings or intuitions I have about certain characters, I consciously try to not interpret the imagery myself. Because portrait imagery is 'dream-like', I'll often use a dream dictionary as a reference tool to assist with the interpretation. From here, we can discuss the areas in the portrait (/the influences in your life) that you'd like to manifest change in, and - if more clarity is necessary - I go back into the portrait to complete the 'transformative' phase.
"Change a Drawing,
Change Your Life"
~manifest the life-dream you deserve!
Change a Drawing,
Change Your Life...
Although you might not know it yet, YOU are a strong, spiritual being capable of manifesting whatever you desire - love, joy, abundance, health and prosperity... all the things that are your birthright! An intuitive portrait can help you with that.Using clairvoyance, I Illustrate your 'life-dream' in 2 stages... first (just from hearing your voice), I do a portrait (in pencil) that reveals some of the main influences upon your physical life thus far - the people, events and unconscious energies in your life environment that have shaped who you've come to believe you are today. We interpret the images in that drawing together, and then I ask you the all-important question: "If you could imagine that changing something in the drawing would change something specific in your life and provide for a better outcome, what would you want to change?" Then I go back into the areas of the portrait where you'd like to manifest change, and draw into it again (this time in pen - more permanent and definite). Especially for people that have trouble with visualization, this can be an incredibly useful tool... you're still using your own energies for your personal growth process; I'm providing a visual aid (as it were) to help you to 'remember' who you came into this world to be, and assist you in making your intentions more tangible. "Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all of the barriers within yourself that you have built against it." ~ A Course in Miracles
Although you might not know it yet, YOU are a strong, spiritual being capable of manifesting whatever you desire - love, joy, abundance, health and prosperity... all the things that are your birthright! An intuitive portrait can help you with that.
Using clairvoyance, I Illustrate your 'life-dream' in 2 stages... first (just from hearing your voice), I do a portrait (in pencil) that reveals some of the main influences upon your physical life thus far - the people, events and unconscious energies in your life environment that have shaped who you've come to believe you are today. We interpret the images in that drawing together, and then I ask you the all-important question: "If you could imagine that changing something in the drawing would change something specific in your life and provide for a better outcome, what would you want to change?" Then I go back into the areas of the portrait where you'd like to manifest change, and draw into it again (this time in pen - more permanent and definite). Especially for people that have trouble with visualization, this can be an incredibly useful tool... you're still using your own energies for your personal growth process; I'm providing a visual aid (as it were) to help you to 'remember' who you came into this world to be, and assist you in making your intentions more tangible. "Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all of the barriers within yourself that you have built against it." ~ A Course in Miracles
David J. Nagy
All Rights reserved
The ARTIST:
DAVID J. NAGYI spent my formative years in a town of about 100 people in North-western Ontario, where forestry was the primary occupation. For a while, I worked in the industry myself. As a scaler, my job was to inventory the amount of wood our logging contractors cut for the company. The unease I grew to associate with clear-cuts was juxtaposed with canoeing down a river system without seeing another soul for a week at a time. I consider my time there somewhat like a spiritual hermitage. I produced then what I consider to be my first significant drawing: a self-portrait as a scarecrow, stuck in the ground, dream-shapes flying by in the clouds overhead.I left to work as an artist, but looking back it's obvious to me that I needed some direction and life experience. I enrolled in a university BA Visual Arts program. And then 'life' started happening. I had two children. The first died when she was ten days old. I placed her ashes in a waterfalls that I had gone to in my youth. As a result of that, most of the artworks I produced over the next several years were site-specific sculptural works that I installed in or around water. I created, I exhibited, I worked off arts grants.For the next fifteen years, I denied my professional work. I was struggling with being an adult child of alcoholism. I worked through dysfunctional relationship patterns. Near the light at the end of the tunnel, I started work on a series of drawings entitled: "I Saw Salvation On My Toast".When it was finished, there were thirty images to the series. Although the series title - and some of the individual images - suggested a tongue-in-cheek tone, the overall theme was a journalistic recounting of the experiences I had been through, and how they had changed me. Perhaps more accurately, those experiences that had helped me to realize who I was and was coming to be. The exercise gave me a greater appreciation for how descriptive art can be.At the same time, I had been working on a series which utilized drawn images of mounted fish in an attempt to explore what trophies mean for people. I realized while working on it that I was identifying specific types of fish with specific persons I knew... a child I knew more like a small, darting perch... an older friend manifested as a large, experienced trout. And I liked using the (oval) format of a trophy mount, not in the sense of the self-glorification of a preserved conquest, but as a means of exalting/memorializing traits or influences of certain persons.I began doing portraits of people using a combination of both of these two series. It happened that I came to do a portrait of someone I had met only briefly. We were both shocked by how much information had been translated, considering what little I actually knew about her personally ("Jenny's Float" / 2006). I can't begin to tell you how exciting I found this, being an artist. This was the birth of "Intuitive Portraiture".
DAVID J. NAGY
I spent my formative years in a town of about 100 people in North-western Ontario, where forestry was the primary occupation. For a while, I worked in the industry myself. As a scaler, my job was to inventory the amount of wood our logging contractors cut for the company. The unease I grew to associate with clear-cuts was juxtaposed with canoeing down a river system without seeing another soul for a week at a time. I consider my time there somewhat like a spiritual hermitage. I produced then what I consider to be my first significant drawing: a self-portrait as a scarecrow, stuck in the ground, dream-shapes flying by in the clouds overhead.
I left to work as an artist, but looking back it's obvious to me that I needed some direction and life experience. I enrolled in a university BA Visual Arts program. And then 'life' started happening. I had two children. The first died when she was ten days old. I placed her ashes in a waterfalls that I had gone to in my youth. As a result of that, most of the artworks I produced over the next several years were site-specific sculptural works that I installed in or around water. I created, I exhibited, I worked off arts grants.
For the next fifteen years, I denied my professional work. I was struggling with being an adult child of alcoholism. I worked through dysfunctional relationship patterns. Near the light at the end of the tunnel, I started work on a series of drawings entitled: "I Saw Salvation On My Toast".
When it was finished, there were thirty images to the series. Although the series title - and some of the individual images - suggested a tongue-in-cheek tone, the overall theme was a journalistic recounting of the experiences I had been through, and how they had changed me. Perhaps more accurately, those experiences that had helped me to realize who I was and was coming to be. The exercise gave me a greater appreciation for how descriptive art can be.
At the same time, I had been working on a series which utilized drawn images of mounted fish in an attempt to explore what trophies mean for people. I realized while working on it that I was identifying specific types of fish with specific persons I knew... a child I knew more like a small, darting perch... an older friend manifested as a large, experienced trout. And I liked using the (oval) format of a trophy mount, not in the sense of the self-glorification of a preserved conquest, but as a means of exalting/memorializing traits or influences of certain persons.
I began doing portraits of people using a combination of both of these two series. It happened that I came to do a portrait of someone I had met only briefly. We were both shocked by how much information had been translated, considering what little I actually knew about her personally ("Jenny's Float" / 2006). I can't begin to tell you how exciting I found this, being an artist. This was the birth of "Intuitive Portraiture".
ORDERING:
PRICING:*Please note: my pricing schedule reflects my interest in keeping portrait work accessible. When working as a consultant (i.e. doing portrait work in conjunction with an other professional's practice such as psychiatric/counselling therapy), additional fees may apply and will be negotiated before work commences.At this time, I offer portraits in these formats, all on paper (*the number of characters that present in a portrait is not necessarily dependant on its size).'Snapshot' (single stage) small-approx 6.5 x 11.5cm: $225 CAD*'Change a Drawing, Change Your Life' Format (2 stages): $450 CAD*'Life-dream' (single stage) large-approx 31 x 24cm: $540 CAD*'Change a Drawing, Change Your Life' Format (2 stages): $1080 CAD*(The size of the portrait does not necessarily mean more or less characters. You'll be presented with what you need either way, but the larger version will provide more (peripheral) information about related issues.)all portraits include a digital recording of the post-portrait consultation(*BC residents add 7% PST; price does not include shipping)*prices subject to change without noticePAYMENT OPTIONSPayments can be made using VISA, MasterCard, American Express, or Discover Card. After placing a request for a portrait, you'll receive an invoice by email with instructions on how to pay using PayPal. (Note: you do NOT require a PayPal account to pay using this method.)If you prefer, you can also pay by cheque or money order made out in Canadian funds.
PRICING:
*Please note: my pricing schedule reflects my interest in keeping portrait work accessible. When working as a consultant (i.e. doing portrait work in conjunction with an other professional's practice such as psychiatric/counselling therapy), additional fees may apply and will be negotiated before work commences.
At this time, I offer portraits in these formats, all on paper (*the number of characters that present in a portrait is not necessarily dependant on its size).
'Snapshot' (single stage) small-approx 6.5 x 11.5cm: $225 CAD*
'Change a Drawing, Change Your Life' Format (2 stages): $450 CAD*
'Life-dream' (single stage) large-approx 31 x 24cm: $540 CAD*
'Change a Drawing, Change Your Life' Format (2 stages): $1080 CAD*
(The size of the portrait does not necessarily mean more or less characters. You'll be presented with what you need either way, but the larger version will provide more (peripheral) information about related issues.)
all portraits include a digital recording of the post-portrait consultation
(*BC residents add 7% PST; price does not include shipping)
*prices subject to change without notice
PAYMENT OPTIONS
Payments can be made using VISA, MasterCard, American Express, or Discover Card. After placing a request for a portrait, you'll receive an invoice by email with instructions on how to pay using PayPal. (Note: you do NOT require a PayPal account to pay using this method.)
If you prefer, you can also pay by cheque or money order made out in Canadian funds.
Currency Converter
CONTACT:
Tel: 778-430-1015Address:Victoria, BC CanadaEmail:intuitiveportraiture(at)yahoo(dot)ca
Tel:
778-430-1015
Address:
Victoria, BC Canada
Email:
intuitiveportraiture(at)yahoo(dot)ca
Breakfast with JungLINDA ROGERSArtist David Nagy relies on his intuition to create detailed portraits of his subjects' unconscious nature. Most Saturday mornings, we forgo reading the newspaper and cross the park to the Victoria South Afro-Semitic Breakfast Club. Our friends, émigrés from Apartheid, do miss the warmth and colour of their native land, and especially its open hospitality. Breakfast is blintzes, crepes or pancakes, depending where you come from. Served with coffee and fruit, they go well with the eclectic conversation of neighbours and friends who meet to talk about books, social issues, the latest movie, or gardens in process. I never know who I will meet there, who I will strain to hear over the conversation of birds. This week it is David Nagy, who has emailed to ask if I'd be willing to sit for an intuitive portrait that he will pull out of my unconscious. David makes the invisible visible. I have already seen his portrait of our hosts, the husband a seabird sitting in a rowboat with the missus, a bare-breasted goddess, lounging in the stern. What will I be, fisher of men, a geriatric Venus, or perhaps something even more exotic or esoteric? David has a questionnaire. Supposedly, he knows nothing about me and my hosts have maintained discretion. I am to sit down with my breakfast and talk to him while he scratches a graphite background on an oval piece of wood. "This is easy," I think. David has intense blue eyes that bore right through my head bone and leap into my soul. "Step right in," I say, welcoming him to my naked brain. I want to know about him too. An introvert living in his own imagination, David grew up in a big family in Thunder Bay, knowing he had a vocation in art. His mother called him "Hunsi," which means "little bird" in German. Hunsi had a song to share, so he went to art school to tune up. Life pulled him out of his interior world. He got a "real job," married and lost a child in infancy. After his marriage ended, he came to Victoria with the intention of studying art therapy, but eventually came to the realization that intellectualizing behavioural patterns interfered with his intuitive process. Id won out over ego and David proceeded to map the archetypes in his own unconscious in a journal he called "the salvation of my toast," self portraits on shapes that fit in a toaster. When he met his current partner two years ago, their courtship developed around her intuitive portrait. I think he is telling me that he "knew" their destiny when he saw himself in her picture. "The drawings must be a valuable therapeutic tool," I say, thinking how I use visual images to trigger poetry. They are, he agrees, but he does not want to be the one to interpret what he intuits. That is a different process. He refuses to "think" his drawings. "Is the ideal scenario working with a Jungian therapist who can interpret your gestalt?" "I welcome collaboration," he replies. "Some subjects could have help interpreting the drawing, but that is not my function." "Do any of your subjects resist your interpretation?" I am thinking of the controversy around Lucien Freud's, well, Freudian portrait of the Queen, which was very disturbing to conservative Royalists. "Sometimes my subjects are surprised by images that emerge but usually after a few days they call and tell me that, yes, that archetype was dormant in their subconscious." The happy breakfast noises around us break into our conversation, and David tells me he will finish the drawing later. It is time for him to have his pancakes before they are all eaten, and for me to wonder what he has seen in our conversation. Will he find snakes in the basket that holds my ideas and memories? Later, I google Nagy's website (www.intuitiveportraiture. com) and find completed portraits with interviews. There are three phases to David's process. The first is the interview where he prepares his ranger board; the second is studio time where he brings out the non-representational characters, often animals; and the third is a consultation with the subject, where they discuss what they find in his maps of their subconscious. Act Two finds us at The Spiral Café on a busy Friday morning. In the hubbub of sneezing coffee machines, mothers and children, special needs people, their caregivers, and a group of seniors meeting to talk politics and books, David unveils my drawing. I take a long sip of my double espresso and peek into my mind. Hallelujah, it is not a snake pit, even though the child that was me stands off to the side, her heart half in shadow. What I see first is a friendly dragon figure holding a child. Together they are pouring water from a pot, which could be a womb. Of course it is. That is the centre of a woman's creativity. Sitting on the dragon's head is a left-brained character with glasses, trying to direct the flow. "Good luck," I say. Many have tried and failed. Ask my mother. I am astonished by what David has seen. There is a dove in the foreground. "I hate conflict," I say. There are many birds. Some appear to be angels. One is bridled. I remember having scotch tape put over my mouth in grade one, and one of my father's lawyer friends offering him sympathy for the bad luck of having an outspoken daughter. "The birds represent freedom," David explains. Yes, freedom is a responsibility and a challenge. Slowly, I recognize my husband swimming in the current with a doll hand, his feminine side and creativity, my three children in flight, and the drowned children who didn't survive my haste to produce them. The gestalt is celebratory, just as I would have told him had he asked me directly. The family is all there, the angel granddaughters, the charismatic grandson. I have a happy life. David doesn't know where his compulsion to map minds will take him, but he is enjoying the journey, which is described on his website. Coming away from my meeting with him, I see the human family as a gathering of light bulbs. David Nagy has his hand on the switch.Victoria Poet Laureate Linda Rogers(from the June/09 issue of Focus Magazime)
Breakfast with Jung
LINDA ROGERS
Artist David Nagy relies on his intuition to create detailed portraits of his subjects' unconscious nature.
Most Saturday mornings, we forgo reading the newspaper and cross the park to the Victoria South Afro-Semitic Breakfast Club. Our friends, émigrés from Apartheid, do miss the warmth and colour of their native land, and especially its open hospitality.
Breakfast is blintzes, crepes or pancakes, depending where you come from. Served with coffee and fruit, they go well with the eclectic conversation of neighbours and friends who meet to talk about books, social issues, the latest movie, or gardens in process.
I never know who I will meet there, who I will strain to hear over the conversation of birds. This week it is David Nagy, who has emailed to ask if I'd be willing to sit for an intuitive portrait that he will pull out of my unconscious.
David makes the invisible visible. I have already seen his portrait of our hosts, the husband a seabird sitting in a rowboat with the missus, a bare-breasted goddess, lounging in the stern. What will I be, fisher of men, a geriatric Venus, or perhaps something even more exotic or esoteric?
David has a questionnaire. Supposedly, he knows nothing about me and my hosts have maintained discretion. I am to sit down with my breakfast and talk to him while he scratches a graphite background on an oval piece of wood.
"This is easy," I think. David has intense blue eyes that bore right through my head bone and leap into my soul. "Step right in," I say, welcoming him to my naked brain.
I want to know about him too.
An introvert living in his own imagination, David grew up in a big family in Thunder Bay, knowing he had a vocation in art. His mother called him "Hunsi," which means "little bird" in German. Hunsi had a song to share, so he went to art school to tune up.
Life pulled him out of his interior world. He got a "real job," married and lost a child in infancy. After his marriage ended, he came to Victoria with the intention of studying art therapy, but eventually came to the realization that intellectualizing behavioural patterns interfered with his intuitive process. Id won out over ego and David proceeded to map the archetypes in his own unconscious in a journal he called "the salvation of my toast," self portraits on shapes that fit in a toaster.
When he met his current partner two years ago, their courtship developed around her intuitive portrait. I think he is telling me that he "knew" their destiny when he saw himself in her picture.
"The drawings must be a valuable therapeutic tool," I say, thinking how I use visual images to trigger poetry.
They are, he agrees, but he does not want to be the one to interpret what he intuits. That is a different process. He refuses to "think" his drawings.
"Is the ideal scenario working with a Jungian therapist who can interpret your gestalt?"
"I welcome collaboration," he replies. "Some subjects could have help interpreting the drawing, but that is not my function."
"Do any of your subjects resist your interpretation?" I am thinking of the controversy around Lucien Freud's, well, Freudian portrait of the Queen, which was very disturbing to conservative Royalists.
"Sometimes my subjects are surprised by images that emerge but usually after a few days they call and tell me that, yes, that archetype was dormant in their subconscious."
The happy breakfast noises around us break into our conversation, and David tells me he will finish the drawing later. It is time for him to have his pancakes before they are all eaten, and for me to wonder what he has seen in our conversation.
Will he find snakes in the basket that holds my ideas and memories?
Later, I google Nagy's website (www.intuitiveportraiture. com) and find completed portraits with interviews. There are three phases to David's process. The first is the interview where he prepares his ranger board; the second is studio time where he brings out the non-representational characters, often animals; and the third is a consultation with the subject, where they discuss what they find in his maps of their subconscious.
Act Two finds us at The Spiral Café on a busy Friday morning. In the hubbub of sneezing coffee machines, mothers and children, special needs people, their caregivers, and a group of seniors meeting to talk politics and books, David unveils my drawing.
I take a long sip of my double espresso and peek into my mind. Hallelujah, it is not a snake pit, even though the child that was me stands off to the side, her heart half in shadow. What I see first is a friendly dragon figure holding a child. Together they are pouring water from a pot, which could be a womb. Of course it is. That is the centre of a woman's creativity.
Sitting on the dragon's head is a left-brained character with glasses, trying to direct the flow.
"Good luck," I say. Many have tried and failed. Ask my mother.
I am astonished by what David has seen. There is a dove in the foreground. "I hate conflict," I say. There are many birds. Some appear to be angels. One is bridled. I remember having scotch tape put over my mouth in grade one, and one of my father's lawyer friends offering him sympathy for the bad luck of having an outspoken daughter.
"The birds represent freedom," David explains. Yes, freedom is a responsibility and a challenge.
Slowly, I recognize my husband swimming in the current with a doll hand, his feminine side and creativity, my three children in flight, and the drowned children who didn't survive my haste to produce them. The gestalt is celebratory, just as I would have told him had he asked me directly. The family is all there, the angel granddaughters, the charismatic grandson. I have a happy life.
David doesn't know where his compulsion to map minds will take him, but he is enjoying the journey, which is described on his website. Coming away from my meeting with him, I see the human family as a gathering of light bulbs. David Nagy has his hand on the switch.
Victoria Poet Laureate Linda Rogers
(from the June/09 issue of Focus Magazime)
GALLERY
Contact me for Intuitive Portraiture courses and workshops
(learn on-line or in person)
*I've done portraits that help people who've been experiencing blocks to dream recall, dealing with depression, addictions, and insomnia. I'm keenly interested in exploring (more of) the therapeutic applications where my process might potentially be beneficial including constellation therapy, dream/sleep dysfunction, Alzheimer's/memory loss, etc. I'm happy to collaborate with other healers, offering a tool that may be complementary to their own practices.
Click here to read "Little Wolf, Black Feather",
chronicling my personal experiences with
dreams, journeys and healing.
*this site is dedicated to Ruby E Rain and her sister, Hannah
