Danny Myburgh

I have created art since I was a young child. I find that it is the way that I express my thoughts best. I am not bound by rules, conventions and logic and I am able to express things that are impossible or difficult to verbalise. I have worked as an art therapist and an art teacher and have seen the incredible power of art operate at a subconscious and unconscious level which simply transcends verbal, language, cultural, moral, political values. It functions at a pure, honest, visceral level which is undeniably true. Most of our memories are created before we are 6 years of age. They form the foundation of our neural networks. And by implication, they are the basis of who we become. Unfortunately we can remember barely a handful of these memories even with the help of visual or aural prompts. We are more capable of remembering and understanding a complex occurrence which happened yesterday. And yet our early childhood memories are more influential and more important. We have very little insight into what motivates us to behave in specific ways in certain situations. Without conscious introspection and mindfulness, we do not understand or have insight into how our early lived experiences affect the rest of our lives. They create the lens through which we experience the world. In recent times the science of epigenetics (inherited memories) has advanced greatly. Scientists have found tags on our DNA which transfer memories from one generation to another. However the tags need to be activated and this process has yet to be understood. We do know, that we can inherit memories from our ancestors of things, places, people and events which we have not personally experienced. I am interested in how memories affect our lives. How our perception of these memories changes over time and how this changes the way we live our lives. When we are psychologically healthy, we feel contained. In other words, we feel safe as opposed to vulnerable; secure in the belief that the world is at best benign, and at the worst not all bad; mostly in control of ourselves and to a lesser extent our environment; robust enough to be able to deal with some adversity; positive, in that we are prepared to take some risks in order to live our lives to the full; and most importantly, that we have agency and choices to direct our lives. It is therefore very important that we understand ourselves well. And that means we must understand why we do things in certain ways.

× I have created art since I was a young child. I find that it is the way that I express my thoughts best. I am not bound by rules, conventions and logic and I am able to express things that are impossible or difficult to verbalise. I have worked as an art therapist and an art teacher and have seen the incredible power of art operate at a subconscious and unconscious level which simply transcends verbal, language, cultural, moral, political values. It functions at a pure, honest, visceral level which is undeniably true. Most of our memories are created before we are 6 years of age. They form the foundation of our neural networks. And by implication, they are the basis of who we become. Unfortunately we can remember barely a handful of these memories even with the help of visual or aural prompts. We are more capable of remembering and understanding a complex occurrence which happened yesterday. And yet our early childhood memories are more influential and more important. We have very little insight into what motivates us to behave in specific ways in certain situations. Without conscious introspection and mindfulness, we do not understand or have insight into how our early lived experiences affect the rest of our lives. They create the lens through which we experience the world. In recent times the science of epigenetics (inherited memories) has advanced greatly. Scientists have found tags on our DNA which transfer memories from one generation to another. However the tags need to be activated and this process has yet to be understood. We do know, that we can inherit memories from our ancestors of things, places, people and events which we have not personally experienced. I am interested in how memories affect our lives. How our perception of these memories changes over time and how this changes the way we live our lives. When we are psychologically healthy, we feel contained. In other words, we feel safe as opposed to vulnerable; secure in the belief that the world is at best benign, and at the worst not all bad; mostly in control of ourselves and to a lesser extent our environment; robust enough to be able to deal with some adversity; positive, in that we are prepared to take some risks in order to live our lives to the full; and most importantly, that we have agency and choices to direct our lives. It is therefore very important that we understand ourselves well. And that means we must understand why we do things in certain ways.

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