A circular motif of concentric lines anchors Risan’s self-portrait, a sort of mandala with his image as its center. According to the dream symbolism theories of C.G. Jung, a visualization or depiction of mandala patterns indicates an instinctive search for balance when “psychic equilibrium is disturbed.” The ancient symbol is an archetype of the collective unconscious, “an inner image, which is gradually built up through (active) imagination.” The central point of the circle signifies the self, what Jung identified as “the totality of the psyche” and “the whole circumference which embraces both conscious and unconscious.”[1] Risan is separated from the spiral socle in his paintings that portray especially taxing incidents. The glowing disc that appears in Cultural Difference (2014), for example, hovers near a ghostly likeness of the artist. Risan is seated and faces a female companion but is without a mouth, and therefore unable to utter a word. Fully dressed and crowned with a graduation cap, the woman fails to notice his inability to speak and holds up two documents. The artist leans to the spherical sign with two closely attached ears as though seeking translation. A second mandala disappears beneath a covering of paint that provides a backdrop to the failed exchange.