Matt Haig

Within our minds, we all have an internal landscape, a vast and complex inner world of our creation, both conscious and unconscious, a blend of many aspects, including memories, dreams, beliefs, imaginings, experiences, fears, thoughts and feelings. We need strength of mind to help us to hold on to our ‘good’ aspects, whilst still having the courage to be aware of and face our ‘inner demons.’

They are inside all of us, those parts of ourselves that we do not like. However, the ‘monstrous’, raging, nasty parts of all of us will be worse if left unacknowledged and unchecked. Unless we ‘make friends’ with our demons and gain knowledge of and mastery over them, they can become out of control.

This side of us, however, if harnessed and controlled, can be the provider of strength and powerful energy, the kind of energy that enables us to stand up for ourselves and others; it is necessary for us to have such potentiality to be complete and whole as people.

“Anger, if used properly, might be for a cause, like helping feed children or stopping abuse somewhere. When we understand that every quality has importance and value, then we open up to this. Shining a light on these shadow qualities gives it balance.”

Debbie Ford

Lajos Vajda (1935) Dark Self-portrait. Wikimedia Commons

“We have to recall the functional definition of the Shadow as that which renders us uncomfortable in confronting in ourselves.”

James Hollis

To illustrate further the concept of the unconscious, the metaphor of the forest perfectly expresses this inner part of us. There exist, inside the psyche of us all, dark places, uncharted, unexplored areas, shadows, dense thickets of unconscious material, full of shadows and uncertainty.

‘At the back of the little tonge of land, there lay a fearsome forest right perilous to traverse.’ Arthur Rackham. Wikioo.

“I am a forest, and a night of dark trees: but he who is not afraid of my darkness, will find banks full of roses under my cypresses.”

Nietzsche

‘Traversing’ such a scary landscape takes courage and patience, for there, deep within us, we will come face to face with our lurking monsters, our demons, our darkness and our ‘shadow side.’ 

We cannot discover these aspects of ourselves unless we feel ready enough and strong enough. When we do reach this stage, we may decide to have psychotherapy, in order to help us face our less acceptable sides and discover beneath the ‘banks full of roses’ that are also in us all, representing our admirable qualities.

Edith White. Roses 1899. Wikimedia Commons

“Only when we are brave enough to explore the darkness will we discover the infinite power of our light.”

Brené Brown

• Shadows and art

Feet – Vincent Van Gogh. Wikioo.

“The eye is always caught by light, but shadows have more to say.”

Gregory Maguire

The heaviness and muscularity of the feet in Van Gogh’s artwork are complemented by the darkness and strength of the shadows. These enhance the shape of the feet, defining and describing them with perfect accuracy.

Leonardo da Vinci – Saint John the Baptist. c. 1507–1516. Louvre. Wikimedia Commons

 “Shadow is the means by which bodies display their form. The forms of bodies could not be understood in detail but for shadow.”

Leonardo da Vinci

We may not always notice the shadows in art, but they are often highly meaningful and always effective in enhancing the work. Shadows ground us. Without them in our artworks, people and objects would appear to float, they would not be firmly placed on this earth. They create a sense of perspective, of realism, of depth, and they render a work true to life, even though we may not normally notice them much. They make what we have painted look ‘right.’

John Singer Sargent – Corfu, Lights and Shadows. 1909. Wikimedia Commons

As Sargent has amply illustrated in the painting above, there are colours within shadows, they are not all neutral shades of grey. There are tones, too, lights and darks within the shadow itself. See how, in  this painting of Corfu, the artist has created connection and harmony between the shadows, the sky and the sea. The shadows are reflecting the colour of the ambient light of the sky.

Claude Monet – Haystacks. Meules. 1890. Wikimedia Commons 

 “The eye is always caught by light, but shadows have more to say.”

 Gregory Maguire

Just as shadows in art have ‘more to say,’ so do the shadows within our world and within ourselves. They are powerful reminders that there is more to life than meets the eye, that there are other dimensions, light and dark sides, and our shadow reflects our wholeness, our identity, our individuality and our uniqueness.

Frank Brangwyn – The Swans. 1921. Wikimedia Commons.

“Art teaches you the philosophy of life, and if you can’t learn it from art, you can’t learn it at all. It shows you that there is no perfection. There is light, and there is shadow. Everything is in half tint.”

William Morris Hunt

© Linda Berman

Attributed to Bartolome Esteban Murillo – The Invention of Painting, c. 1660. Wikimedia Commons

“What has no shadow has no strength to live.”

 Czeslaw Milosz

What is the meaning and deeper symbolism of shadows? Despite the fact that our shadow follows us everywhere, that it has grown as we have grown, and that shadows appear prominently in art, photography, literature, theatre and dance, we generally do not realise their hidden significance or understand what they might mean.

Yet our world is full of shadows, and they live amongst us, whether we notice them or not. They help us tell the time of day, they ground us in the present moment, slowly moving as the earth rotates on its axis.

Sundial on the Wall of a Public School, Stuttgart. 2017. BohunkaNika. Wikimedia Commons

• The beauty of light and shadow

“There is strong shadow where there is much light.”

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Shadows are meaningful because they bring contrast, creating patterns of darkness against the light. They add a whole other highly significant dimension to life; without them we would not know what the word ‘dappled’ truly meant, or be able to appreciate the miraculous designs that shadows make around us.

“We find beauty not in the thing itself but in the patterns of shadows, the light and the darkness, that one thing against another creates.”

Jun’ichirō Tanizaki

In my photograph above, the leaves on the tall trees allow the sunlight to shine through the gaps between them, making intricate, lacy drawings on the ground. The leaves create a beautiful interruption of light, as the sunshine filters through. We cannot see the trees, but their strong shadows describe and define them.

On a dull day, the path above would look different…far less interesting. We do, indeed, need light to create such beauty through the darkness. That is the basic paradox… without the light, there would be no such mysterious, dark tracings, no ornately woven shapes. These magically appear only in the sunlight.

“The brightest flame casts the darkest shadow.”

George R.R. Martin, A Clash of Kings

“I thought the most beautiful thing in the world must be shadow.”

Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar

• Shadows and mystery

Night Shadows. 1921. Edward Hopper. Wikimedia Commons

“There are shadows for the shadows of things, as a reflection seen in a mirror of a mirror. We know there are circles within circles and dimensions beyond dimension. Reality is itself a shadow, only an appearance accepted by those whose eyes shun what might lie beyond.”

Louis L’Amour, The Haunted Mesa

Shadows have long been associated with mystery, uncertainty, fear, and with horror. They suggest, as the quotation tells us, other worlds, other ‘dimensions,’ and thus can appear creepy and uncertain. They may be there one moment, and then disappear as the person moves, connected yet unconnected, fixed, yet fluid.

The long, dark shadow in Hopper’s painting is somewhat creepy, possibly frightening, lending an atmosphere of threat, dislocation and uncertainty to the whole scene. The above quote also reminds us of the concept of uncertainty, of how reality itself can be deceiving to our eyes, with appearances belying what may lurk beneath.

Shadows can also be haunting, they can mask present reality and cast a pall over the present…

Victor Borisov-Musatov. Phantoms. 1903. Wikimedia Commons

“Psychoanalysis has taught that the dead – a dead parent, for example – can be more alive for us, more powerful, more scary, than the living. It is the question of ghosts.”

Jaques Derrida

If we are not able to rid ourselves of the ghostly shadows from the past, perhaps of those people who might haunt us for many reasons, then it is difficult to appreciate our lives currently and to look forward to a hopeful future…

Shadow, Margret Hofheinz-Döring,Galerie Brigitte Mauch Göppingen. 1988. Wikimedia Commons. (Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported licence)

“Without the past to cast its long shadow, might you see the future more clearly?”

 Diane Setterfield

• The shadow side and the personality

Shadow self-portrait.2008. Author: Small-town zero. Wikimedia Commons

“How can I be substantial if I do not cast a shadow? I must have a dark side also If I am to be whole.”

C.G. Jung, Modern Man in Search of a Soul

Jung’s words refer to the existence of shadows in all of us… our inner shadowy areas represent the parts of ourselves that we need in order to make us fully-rounded people, but which we may find difficult to accept. It can be scary to objectively face the parts of ourselves that we might not want to acknowledge – our ‘shadow side.‘

“A person was like a city. You couldn’t let a few less desirable parts put you off the whole. There may be bits you don’t like, a few dodgy side streets and suburbs, but the good stuff makes it worthwhile.”

Matt Haig

Within our minds, we all have an internal landscape, a vast and complex inner world of our creation, both conscious and unconscious, a blend of many aspects, including memories, dreams, beliefs, imaginings, experiences, fears, thoughts and feelings. We need strength of mind to help us to hold on to our ‘good’ aspects, whilst still having the courage to be aware of and face our ‘inner demons.’

They are inside all of us, those parts of ourselves that we do not like. However, the ‘monstrous’, raging, nasty parts of all of us will be worse if left unacknowledged and unchecked. Unless we ‘make friends’ with our demons and gain knowledge of and mastery over them, they can become out of control.

This side of us, however, if harnessed and controlled, can be the provider of strength and powerful energy, the kind of energy that enables us to stand up for ourselves and others; it is necessary for us to have such potentiality to be complete and whole as people.

“Anger, if used properly, might be for a cause, like helping feed children or stopping abuse somewhere. When we understand that every quality has importance and value, then we open up to this. Shining a light on these shadow qualities gives it balance.”

Debbie Ford

Lajos Vajda (1935) Dark Self-portrait. Wikimedia Commons

“We have to recall the functional definition of the Shadow as that which renders us uncomfortable in confronting in ourselves.”

James Hollis

To illustrate further the concept of the unconscious, the metaphor of the forest perfectly expresses this inner part of us. There exist, inside the psyche of us all, dark places, uncharted, unexplored areas, shadows, dense thickets of unconscious material, full of shadows and uncertainty.

‘At the back of the little tonge of land, there lay a fearsome forest right perilous to traverse.’ Arthur Rackham. Wikioo.

“I am a forest, and a night of dark trees: but he who is not afraid of my darkness, will find banks full of roses under my cypresses.”

Nietzsche

‘Traversing’ such a scary landscape takes courage and patience, for there, deep within us, we will come face to face with our lurking monsters, our demons, our darkness and our ‘shadow side.’ 

We cannot discover these aspects of ourselves unless we feel ready enough and strong enough. When we do reach this stage, we may decide to have psychotherapy, in order to help us face our less acceptable sides and discover beneath the ‘banks full of roses’ that are also in us all, representing our admirable qualities.

Edith White. Roses 1899. Wikimedia Commons

“Only when we are brave enough to explore the darkness will we discover the infinite power of our light.”

Brené Brown

• Shadows and art

Feet – Vincent Van Gogh. Wikioo.

“The eye is always caught by light, but shadows have more to say.”

Gregory Maguire

The heaviness and muscularity of the feet in Van Gogh’s artwork are complemented by the darkness and strength of the shadows. These enhance the shape of the feet, defining and describing them with perfect accuracy.

Leonardo da Vinci – Saint John the Baptist. c. 1507–1516. Louvre. Wikimedia Commons

 “Shadow is the means by which bodies display their form. The forms of bodies could not be understood in detail but for shadow.”

Leonardo da Vinci

We may not always notice the shadows in art, but they are often highly meaningful and always effective in enhancing the work. Shadows ground us. Without them in our artworks, people and objects would appear to float, they would not be firmly placed on this earth. They create a sense of perspective, of realism, of depth, and they render a work true to life, even though we may not normally notice them much. They make what we have painted look ‘right.’

John Singer Sargent – Corfu, Lights and Shadows. 1909. Wikimedia Commons

As Sargent has amply illustrated in the painting above, there are colours within shadows, they are not all neutral shades of grey. There are tones, too, lights and darks within the shadow itself. See how, in  this painting of Corfu, the artist has created connection and harmony between the shadows, the sky and the sea. The shadows are reflecting the colour of the ambient light of the sky.

Claude Monet – Haystacks. Meules. 1890. Wikimedia Commons 

 “The eye is always caught by light, but shadows have more to say.”

 Gregory Maguire

Just as shadows in art have ‘more to say,’ so do the shadows within our world and within ourselves. They are powerful reminders that there is more to life than meets the eye, that there are other dimensions, light and dark sides, and our shadow reflects our wholeness, our identity, our individuality and our uniqueness.

Frank Brangwyn – The Swans. 1921. Wikimedia Commons.

“Art teaches you the philosophy of life, and if you can’t learn it from art, you can’t learn it at all. It shows you that there is no perfection. There is light, and there is shadow. Everything is in half tint.”

William Morris Hunt

© Linda Berman