Trying not to be noise, an artist I am really into, and a moment of vulnerability

Good morning all! Another week on the inexorable quest to be relevant, interesting, insightful, and novel. These are my North Star words when it comes to my online presence. There is so much GD noise out there and it is truly driving me berserk. I crave quiet. I crave stillness. I crave a moment off the hamster wheel to sit with my thoughts. So many evenings in these last few weeks, when my husband and I have finally made it to “the couch” for some wind-down time, I have lamented that my brain feels overwhelmed and my thoughts jumbled. It feels like nothing is straight and clear. That’s the god’s honest truth.

To be honest (it feels like I say that a lot), when I sat down to write today, I had no idea what to say. The ideas have not been flowing like usual; and, I think it is because there are too many boulders in the stream blocking the clear and continuous flow of deep and meaningful thought. My internal dialogue to get myself here went something like this: “Casey, just take the first step. The headlights are illuminating only what is in front of you so just do the next right thing…”

Step 1: Sit down at your desk.

Step 2: Open the Substack app on your desktop computer to minimize potential Instascroll distraction.

Step 3: Open a fresh draft.

Step 4: Tell the truth.

That last step is when my fingers started flying.

I’ve been self-helping the $h!t out of life lately. Since the start of the new year, I have devoured The Let Them Theory by Mel Robbins (transformational), Raising Boys by Stephen Biddulph (I understand my children so much better!), Directional Living by Megan Hellerer (some great nuggets), and currently I’m reading Know What Matters by Ron Shaich. Shaich was the force behind Panera and responsible for making it one of the most successful restaurant concepts of all time due to his keen insight into adaptability and transformation. The book is rather business-y but I picked it up because CMAA is undergoing a bit of a transformation and rebrand at the moment.

In the book, Shaich outlines his steps to transformation:

1. Tell the truth.
2. Know what matters.
3. Get the job done.

First, you gotta tell the truth. You have to come to terms with reality and see things as they really are. And my reality is that I don’t have my content calendar planned months in advance and I have been dreading writing this post because I didn’t feel like I had anything to say. But when I started writing what I feel—jumbled, confused, and misaligned—I realized that many of you might feel that way too. I realized that the universe is probably telling me, “Hey, if you feel this way, think about everyone else. You live under the same sky as every other human.” And then, the lightbulb spluttered, blinked, sparked, and exploded…

I spent the morning drooling over Bortolami’s upcoming Frieze presentation (thank you Evan for the preview!) and I am obsessed with Madeline Hollander’s project Day Flight. I’m just going to use Bortolami’s verbiage here because I can’t improve on it:

Each of Madeline Hollander’s watercolors correspond to a specific constellation of stars. Together, they map a full calendar of the night sky over the course of one year.

The colorful, curlicued patterns in each watercolor depict a three dimensional flight map, charting a path from the the stars closest to Earth to those furthest away.

Each star is demarcated with a map pin on the surface of the paper. Using her own color-coded language, Hollander has “spelled” the name of each constellation in the swirling forms which connect the stars. And the candy stripe patterns along the border of each page spell out the month in which each constellation is brightest and most clearly visible.

With Frieze and Art Production Fund, Hollander has choreographed flight routes corresponding to each watercolor. Visitors to Frieze can purchase a private flight in electric planes departing from Santa Monica Airport which will simulate the forms in her compositions.

In total, there are 88 works in the suite, which correspond to the International Astronomical Union (IAU)’s officially recognized constellations. 70 will be shown at Frieze.

At first, I thought I related to these works because I have a deep and unfulfilled fascination with space. I love thinking about the concept of the infinite and the vastness of the unknown. For whatever reason, it makes me feel better about life. Backwards, I know. But whenever I get wrapped up in whatever is wrapping me up—her accomplishments are better than mine, her hair is thicker than mine, her jewelry is prettier than mine, she has her life together more than me, yaddah yaddah yaddah…—and then I think about how “she” is a tiny speck in the infinite and ineffable universe, and so am I, I feel a lot better about just living my tiny little life and letting her live hers (whoever she is). Ok, bringing it back to the art, just give me a minute…

So, yes, I think these works are GENIUS because of how they marry my love of the cosmos with art historical principles of abstraction and invite me to think about the vastness of time and space (my toe is wildly tapping right now). And they are really just cool-lookin’ and would rock a moody office space in a kind of macho, yet sensitive way. And they are priced so well. Checking all the boxes.

But they also remind me that life ain’t a straight line. On of the critical aspects of this work is the fact that the ribbons map the path of the stars from furthest to closest to Earth and the pushpins demarcate the location of the stars in the constellation. As we can see, even though the shortest distance between two points is a straight line, life isn’t about taking the shortcuts. It’s about meandering this way and that on the journey toward ultimate fulfillment. It’s okay to explore over here and over there on your path from A to Z. At times, everyone living under the same sky feels confused, jumbled, and misaligned. All we have to do is find the next star and take the next step.

 

And that concludes this week’s edition of “Deep Thoughts by Casey.” Thank you all for listening to me meander. I feel a lot better now.

Air kisses (we need to practice since LA fairs are nigh),

Casey

(All photo credit: Bortolami’s preview)