New Work, I'd Stop the World for You
Ironically one of my paintings is named, "I'd Stop The World For You." Given this incredibly odd time in human history I think COVID-19 just did that for all of us. I haven't had much time to reflect on what this means until today after tax work was off my back.
As an artist I believe this is a golden time to remain uninterrupted and make some work. That’s easy to imagine. There are no more excuses. I am relieved to have an infinite time slot ahead of me to roll up my sleeves and dig deep.
A quick review of Rebecca Solnet’s book, “Hope in the Dark, Untold Histories, Wild Possibilities” led me to a few conclusions. To be fair her book concluded in 2014 but I have to believe today’s activism is taking place on a much larger scale then she ever imagined. That activism is already happening household by household, family by family. How high can we raise the flag for true responsibility to social distancing? Is there much choice in non-activism?
Chapter 15 of Solnet’s book is titled, “Getting the Hell out of Paradise.” Have we left that oasis? For the immediate future our home is our empire. Much will be made, produced, changed, cemented in our habit developed in home confinements. The impulse to go out— for a dinner, a play, a bar, an opening, a friend’s home are gone. Because of that I’m personally excited to see how this tempering of our ‘go’ habit, our restraint, will play out. Believe me, I know some will be in financial ruins. I have two sons in food service. It’s already a dramatic disruption for them. One son’s chef has tested positive. The ramifications are long reaching. We can all tell those sorts of stories.
All that aside I’m excited about the creativity that will flourish in the long hours of contemplation. With reflective time comes bonuses that alter family dynamics. In our closeness and proximity we awake to the presence of here and now. How does that play out 18 months from now? A population boom? I have to believe it’s a balm, a healing, of our true colors. Yes, Ms. Solnet there is Hope in the Dark.
If the first wave of activism was the 1960’s style of group togetherness and the second wave fragmented identity politics and the third wave new political global alternatives then the fourth wave is to give into powers that invisibly invade our bodies and force us to reexamine ourselves and others in a totally new way. It’s the newest form of power of natural systems. What kind of victory are we seeking now? Individual health and wellness means nothing without the same for our local communities and no less without the wellness of our nation and beyond that the world. We took all that for granted in 2019. This is our new world order. We can’t shut out the local without selling out to the world.
Is the future a train heading for a wreck or a boat sailing gently into the unknown?
I live on the 2nd floor of a postwar apartment building in Sugar Hill in Manhattan. I’m what you call the gentrified invasion sitting comfortably in a remodeled 3/1. There’s Section 8 housing across the street that reminds me every night that not everyone enjoys the comforts of home. In short, we have noise. Most are of the obnoxious sort but if you listen carefully you can hear the sweet ones. One of the noises are from radios that are carried by men who start sweeping the sidewalks outside at 6AM. I’ve come to like it. It’s modern spanish sonatas that always seem to have happy endings. I can tune that out. It becomes a neutral. There’s a new sound in our building these days. It’s a trumpet, a real one, that practices scales in the morning coming from the basement. It’s from the newest cleaner. From his radio in the hallways comes sweet trumpet ballads that he repeats live from the basement on his breaks. I rise straining to hear his trumpet. He’s my local hero.
No matter how good your life is now it can always be better. Trumpets are playing. Can you hear them?