I use a process I call “response collaging” – an intuitive practice rooted in Jungian active imagination.

Active imagination bridges the conscious and unconscious minds by allowing images and symbols to emerge without analytical interference. Rather than intellectually deciding what my work should express, I let my unconscious and embodied responses guide me, as I search through vintage photographs and patterns in old books and magazines.

The Steps:
I generally begin with a feeling – often one I don’t fully understand. I flip through old books and magazines and wait for a visual and an embodied resonance: a doll’s expression, a decorative pattern, an unexpected colour combination. These selections aren’t random; they’re the unconscious speaking.

Only after assembling the collage do I examine what has emerged. I ask myself, what draws me to this particular image? How am I responding to their expression? Why this helmet-like covering? The What is their posture telling me? How does that pattern make me feel? Why this feeling in my body when I see this? It is through the process of phenomenological description – carefully observing and articulating what appears – that meaning emerges. The symbols explain themselves.

This process of making-then-meaning allows symbols to emerge organically. For example when I was creating the ‘Old Doll’ series, the helmets weren’t a conscious decision to represent protection; they appeared repeatedly in the work until their significance became clear. By honouring this intuitive selection process, I have learnt to accesses emotional truths that rational analysis might miss.

This process has reveals to me truths that my conscious mind can’t access directly. The repeated appearance of helmets, for instance, wasn’t a planned metaphor for protection—it was an unconscious need made visible through trusting the process.

To learn more or make an appointment to experience the process
Contact Robyn at robyndavis.email@gmail.com