Join us for a Holiday Reception and Gallery tour! Michael Bauza will be hosting a reception on Saturday, December 17, from 2 pm to 4 pm and will give tours of his exhibit From the Book of Alchemical Practice: A Twenty-Year Retrospective at 2:30pm and at 3:00pm.

I have engaged the interplay between the visible world and the invisible world for the greater part of my life. Images of one sort or another - the images rising in dream from the depths of the unconscious, tarot images, religious images, poetic images, artistic images - have always been a guide for me. I began to explore the alchemy of the darkroom early, while in high school. Also as a boy, I became interested in the images of science, and later pursued those images through a Bachelor's degree in Biology and M.S. and Ph.D. in chemistry. My undergraduate years were particularly blessed in having the opportunity to attend a small school having science faculty members who were equally involved in the visual and performing arts.

The ancient alchemists often referred to their opus as "The Art." In assembling this collage of my art spanning some twenty years, I have felt nourished and supported by the spiritual chemistry and "Art" of the alchemical tradition, as well as the depth-psychological insights of Carl Jung and Marie-Louise von Franz. The alchemists divided their time between laboratory, library, and oratory. In the latter they found the time to pray for spiritual guidance in the performance of their labors.

These gathered works are saturated with the spiritual, with the chemistry of the soul. Many of them are photographic, products of SLR cameras using slow-speed 35mm film and of the darkroom, ancient technology in today's high-speed digital environment. Others bring together water media, mixed media, and collage, all of which, in their own way, arrive slowly, reflectively, one might even say contemplatively. The images are small to tiny, ranging at most from a few square feet to a few square inches. Many of the images are dark, especially among the black-and-white prints. This is the darkness of the underworld, of the unconscious realm, of the archetypes. The color pieces, first shown in a major way in an exhibit entitled "Chamber Music" in 2001, represented a major shift in artistic emphasis. It was perhaps no coincidence that I began a serious relationship with my now wife later that same year; it was a time when 'the music changed.'

I have, over the years, been indeed fortunate to have in the Jung Association Gallery a space that is inviting of work prepared in the alchemical laboratory of the soul. In gratitude for that opportunity, and to honor that part of the alchemical practice of which books play such an important part, I plan to offer a significant portion of the proceeds of sales from this exhibit toward the expansion of the JACO library. Please join in keeping the alchemical tradition at JACO alive!