Mary Antonia Wood, Ph.D.
Artist & Professor, Mythologist & Mentor
"Meaninglessness inhibits the fullness of life and is therefore equivalent to illness. Meaning makes a great many things endurable - perhaps everything."
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As a visual artist for over twenty-five years, I've experienced the highs, the lows and the in-betweens of the artist's life. I feel fortunate to have had my work shown in respected galleries and museums, as well as collected by wonderful institutions and individuals. However, even in the best of times, I've sometimes felt a lack of meaning, or an emptiness while translating the creative calling into what our culture calls "career." The thread into the labyrinth of creation can easily be broken - the demands of the marketplace can easily overtake the creative gift.
My academic background includes both an M.A. and Ph.D. in mythological studies and depth psychology from Pacifica Graduate Institute in Santa Barbara, CA. I'm honored to have returned to Pacifica as Chair and faculty in the Engaged Humanities and Creative Life program. My first publication for Routledge is entitled: The Archetypal Artist: Reimagining Creativity and the Call to Create. (This project is currently in production with a publication date of winter 2021 pending any further pandemic delays. More to come on this!) In my private practice... I specialize in helping individuals reach their fullest potential as creators. The complex territory of creativity includes not only the joy of creating, but also feelings of longing, melancholy and loss. Today we might also add the less poetic terms of "being stuck" or "blocked." At any time in an artist's life, a reinvigorated relationship with the deepest layers of imagination can transform art-making into "soul-making." "Psyche is image. In other words, making images
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