All winter I’ve been working on a series of paintings with the working title “The Art Disagreeableness”. It’s (unpleasantly?) personal. It’s an ongoing project with the goal of transgressing my own proneness to making nice …, my inclination to believe my task in life is to please the world around me. Yesterday I sensed a…
Tag: Jung
Still life paintings in 2021?!?
So why would one, or more precisely I, want to make still life paintings in 2021? I have asked myself this question quite often lately but have yet to find a good answer. Not only do still life painting seem a bit … old fashioned?! The still life has in fact always been regarded as…
The Daily Need of the Soul
“You must have a room, or a certain hour or so a day, where you don’t know what was in the newspapers that morning, you don’t know who your friends are, you don’t know what you owe anybody, you don’t know what anybody owes to you. This is a place where you can simply experience…
Marks, motifs, symbols …
I’m collecting marks in my sketchbook. Marks, or motifs, as I (via Fiona Godfrey) have come to think of them. Making, collecting, contemplating – . Some feels like mine, others have to go – even if I love the look of them. I’m not satisfied with using my eyes only. The motifs have to connect…
On mastery versus meaning
I have been reading quite a lot of Jungian psychology and philosophy over the past few years. Here are some notes from Jason E. Smith’s new book: Religious but not Religious. Living a Symbolic Life (2020) On mastery versus meaning Meaning is a psychological state that can affirm life. Mastery, by contrast, is not affirmation,…
Going deeper
FOURTH POST ON THOMAS MOORE’S CARE OF THE SOUL: Jung equates the unconscious with the soul, and so when we try to live fully consciously in an intellectually predictable world, protected from all mysteries and comfortable with conformity, we lose our everyday opportunities for the soulful life. The intellect wants to know; the soul likes…
A family is a microcosm
For me, and I guess for many of you, Christmas is all about family. It might be the only time of year we all gather. Or the time of the year one becomes most aware of not having a family, or not wanting to be a part of one’s family. It is a time of…
Growing older
I have been reading the Jungian analyst James Hollis on and off for a year now, and he’s still my favourite thinker/writer when it comes to reflecting upon growing older, or more specific, what he calls; the second half of life. The first decades of our life are mostly spent in making adaptations to the world and…
“We have no art. We do everything as well as we can.”
She probably wouldn’t like me saying this, but there is something almost otherworldly about Corita Kent. Corita Kent (1918–1986) was an artist, educator, and advocate for social justice. At age 18 she entered the religious order Immaculate Heart of Mary, eventually teaching in and then heading up the art department at Immaculate Heart College. Her…
James Hollis & the second half of life
Did I mention that I have been reading the Jungian analyst James Hollis this summer? Hollis has written several books on what he calls the second half of life. I am not in any way ready for making a meaningful, abridged, account of his perspective on life. But I might give you a glimpse into his way of…
sub rosa 