Springtime Resistance

by Kelly

Spring.

The word implies a leap, a jump forward; motion, action, flight

But— growing “up” ain’t easy! Think about the plants: when growing seeds bud in Spring, it means a tiny baby shoot bursts forth against the enormous weight of gravity through the dark, deep soil of the earth, chasing some warmth unknown but for the ancient memory, deep in its genetic roots, of sunlight. Can you imagine, pushing upward through so much dark?

I can. As an artist, resistance is a welllllll known friend. Every time I start a project, it’s there. It often feels to me like a strong wind: incessant and buffeting.
But resistance is integral to creation. It exists in dynamic equilibrium with that which WANTS to come forth. The bud. The song you’ve been humming but don’t have words to yet. The recipe assembling itself in your mind. The spark carried on the wings of an unknown wind.

Matthew Barney was a football player before he became an artist. In order to illustrate the presence of resistance in his creative work, he created a contraption whereby he “drew” on the floor of a gigantic room by attaching a pencil to a hanging resistance block (the kind they use in football training) and launching his body at full force into it. This moved the pencil a tiny bit across the floor, just enough to draw a line. Creation takes enormous effort. Hands up to the plants. And to Matthew, who so cleverly showed that acknowledging and engaging resistance as part of the creative process can transform it into a friend.

The Arab Spring, the Prague Spring - these geo-political movements of resistance disable entrenched power structures and regimes. Spring is a time where things shift, naturally, even politically, because such is the order of things.

Growth can feel ecstatic. It can also feel hard. But when that which is incubating comes above ground — well, we know what happens. FLOWERS.

As the blossoms color our California hillsides, we honor the collective effort of Springtime in tune with Nature.

May all the wishes you’ve incubating in the dark of your inner soil bloom.