Month: September 2015

lichen

ben varney1 Comment
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
untitled, acrylic on plywood, 320 x 300 mm, 2015

An experiment with acrylic paint — home brewed mixed in with shop bought ready mixed — it may be more economic to use the ready made.

the subject is desiccated seed pods and lichen. subjects to be pursued further.

gana…

ben varneyLeave a comment 
For instance, Argen- 
tine people play tennis; a ball jumps over the fence. There is 
a little Indian girl outside, and the people inside ask her to 
throw the ball in. She sadly stares at the people and does 
nothing. Then naturally they ask her, "Why don't you 
throw the ball over the fence?" "I have no gana" no 
pleasure in doing it. "I can't do it, because I have no pleas- 
ure in it"; and then you can't do it. That, you see, is a primi- 
tive concept. Gana is what we would l call libido, or energy, 
or volition. When gana is absent, that is an excellent motive. 
For instance, when somebody asks you a favour, and you say, 
"I'm sorry, it doesn't please me," or that you don't like  it, 
that is very impolite. But in South America it is different. 
There people understand what it means when you say it 
doesn't please you; that is enough. You say, "I have no 
gana"; that counts. There is also a social recognition of the 
extraordinarily important fact whether somebody is pleased 
to do something or not. With us this apparently does not 
count at all.

Carl Gustav Jung here.