Rooted Self

Rooted Self
Acrylic, Oil, and Pastel on Canvas (16x24 inches)
Created in Mexico City, 2026

This painting visualizes the psyche as a branching system of identities. Multiple faces emerge from a single structure, representing different aspects of the self shaped by experience, memory, and inheritance. At the base, the snake symbolizes instinctual and unconscious energy, echoing the concept of Kundalini as a latent life force that rises upward, activating awareness as it moves through the psyche.

Drawing on Carl Jung's psychology, the upward movement reflects the process of individuation, in which unconscious material is brought into consciousness and integrated rather than suppressed. Wholeness is not depicted as a single, unified identity, but as a dynamic relationship between many selves, all nourished by the same underlying source.