On Dormancy

I bought this unsent Marjolein Bastin card many years ago; maybe it was for me from me. Having survived a significant crisis or two, I am somewhat familiar with being forced to accept an unwanted “new normal”, as well as with creative dormancy. Trauma does not necessarily produce better art, but it can provide some insights.

Recently on Medium, Julio Vincent Gambuto wrote, “what happened is…the greatest gift ever unwrapped. Not the deaths, not the virus, but The Great Pause…What the crisis has given us is a once-in-a-lifetime chance to see ourselves and our country in the plainest of views…Take a deep breath, ignore the deafening noise, and think deeply about what you want to put back into your life. This is our chance to define a new version of normal, a rare and truly sacred opportunity to get rid of the bullshit and to only bring back what works for us, what makes our lives richer…” (https://forge.medium.com/prepare-for-the-ultimate-gaslighting-6a8ce3f0a0e0)

May our faded spirits emerge from dormancy renewed with the creative energy this world needs.

Here's a little experiment from just before this all began. I wanted to play more with textures and the Acryla Gouache I enjoyed using for the last book, but failed to get the results I wanted.