Barry Woods Johnston
Synopsis: The Book of Job is relevant to this third trilogy book, Harvest, because dialogue, even if antagonistic, is part of the growth process and matures us out of our problems and into an awareness of broader concerns. The pitfall to writing an autobiography is retaining perspective. Too easily, the writer can slip into self-flattery and lose objectivity. Carl Yung chose the Book of Job to draw his patients out of their self-absorption into full maturity as responsible adults. For psychological healing to occur through therapeutics, Sigmund Fraud’s dream analysis encouraged revelation but also self-absorption. Fraud and Yung worked together. Their parting was over the relationship between a mother and son.Fraud averred the maternal relationship centered around the incestuous Oedipus Complex. Yung said the connection is spiritual. First, of course, to achieve healing, we must dig deep into our past and identify issues that contribute to our psychological makeup. That is self-absorbing. However, complete emotional and psychological healing happens when we put our psychological issues behind us. We become well when we grow out of dwelling on our past and take responsibility for who we are in the present.Autobiography: After graduating in architecture from Georgia Institute of Technology, studying at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and National Academy of Design, and serving in Vietnam in 1968 as a Combat Artist, I pursued European methods of art and architecture, living in Florence, Italy, between 1970 and 1972 and in Pietrasanta, Italy, at the Tommasi Foundry between 1985 to 1988. I established a studio in Washington, D.C. for seventeen years, and finally settled into my present studio in Baltimore, MD. As a practicing sculptor for over fifty years and an architectural designer, my primary focus has been on humanity. My sculptures are light and lively while complimenting their architectural setting. I seek to visualise fundamental emotions in three dimensions and breathe life into them. While adding levity, movement, and humanity, my designs are derived from abstract forms symbolically embodying the overall vision. I break down my sculptural visions into the most fundamental abstract shapes-circles, triangles, and squares, allowing those images to emerge as found in nature. I then integrate that abstraction into a realistic statement, seeking to stir universal feelings in others.
