Dynamic Waiting

TIME + OBSESSION = ORDER/DISORDER, ©Joy Kreves

Time.  If you are a creative type, you know about post-event slumps that claim you for a time.  If you have been a creative type for decades, you probably know that those slumps will pass and you'll soon be back into your passion full force. I was thinking about time back in the 1990s when I made my Spiral Series, including the work above.  Spirals can be seen as a diagram of how time is cyclical. I'm in a post-exhibition slump right now.  It's not artist's block, since I have ideas and projects to pursue, but I'm currently involved in mundane art business requiring an imbalance of computer work, family and home issues, and have not been able to actually create new work for a little while.  One benefit of being the age I am is knowing that this awful feeling of creative discomfort will pass.

Spiral Drawing, ©Joy Kreves, Sold, Private Collection

You may have noticed that there seems to be lots of talk about "Dynamic" this and that.  Recent research has found that sitting is terrible for our health. Alan Heller has launched the ergoErgo chair, "dynamic seating" designed to overcome some of the terrible effects of regular sitting.  I've written about ergoErgo in past posts, and am happily (and dynamically) perched on my own black one as I write this now. Dynamic eating is also something I've embraced.  No more food fuel going into me that is not nutritionally dense!  Dr. Fuhrman's EAT TO LIVE book revolutionized my family's diet. Yesterday brought the realization that I am also practicing dynamic waiting.  This is a good way to get through an artistic slump until one can create in the studio again.  I'm not depressed and lethargic, but rather I am looking at and participating in big, energized art shows.  Last week I discovered art gems at Grounds for Sculpture, MOMA P.S.1, The New York Studio School Gallery, and Art All Night 2012 Trenton.  Time passes while practicing dynamic waiting, but is not wasted.  Maybe it's a bit like meditation.  Yes, your physical body will try to distract you with ailments, but in a sense they really are just distractions against the deeper experience.  Being creative will always be that deeper experience for an artist.

Thirst

My

parched eyes harbor gravel under lids

brittle legs seize up in sudden cramps

arthritic shoulders moan at simple chores

I am

the struggling fly, one leg caught in sticky sap

the tottering peacock displaying in gusty wind

the rosy bloom of snapdragon nipped off by summer rabbit

I have been

the ebullient stream that courses over rocks

the fluid panther leaping on its prey

the mossy, dew-filled mantle of the earth

I've yet to know

the underground rumblings of elephants

the  whooshing northern lights inside my bones

the impressive mud-packed footprints of a bear

How thirsty I am now

and how wounded

as time passes quickly yet so slow

each day lacks the order of my passion

I wait half-patiently

for time to spiral 'round again and

in orderly return, return to me 

What I've been and known before, and lost

   -Joy Kreves 6/'12

Perhaps if you are a creative type you will benefit from looking at activities in terms of their dynamic qualities.  Looking back, I believe I visualized the concept of dynamic time in my spirals, drawings done during the 1980's and '90's.  You can see more works from the Spiral Series in the "Line Drawings" gallery of my website:  joykreves.com and current studio information on my facebook page:  JoyKrevesArtStudio  Here's to your having a truly dynamic summer!