Contemplative Corner with Julia Zay | November 2024

Watch This Space! Julia Zay offers practices under the “contemplative” umbrella that invite us to connect with our senses and each other.

With US elections at our doorstep, you may be looking for some moments of quiet and calm this week and in the weeks ahead. I offer you this note to educators from Emma Nordin, Director of Education at Art in the Twenty-First Century (Art21), which felt like a lifeline when it landed in my email inbox earlier this week. Art21 educates and expands access to contemporary art through documentary films, resources, and public programs. Nordin invites us to spend time with the work of contemporary artists which slows time and connects us with forces larger than ourselves.

Hello Educators,

Along with many Americans, I am anxiously waiting for the election cycle to conclude… While this letter could be about civic engagement, I instead want to focus on alleviating anxiety.

Among the many Art21-featured artists whose work instantly calms my nervous system, Vija Celmins is one I return to again and again. Detailed paintings, drawings, and sculptures of the night sky, ocean waves, and rocks––I have stared at these works for hours.

In the Art in the Twenty-First Century film, “Time,” we see her layering, sanding, smudging, scraping layers of paint. Celmins explains, “The image then begins to have a sort of memory in it, even if you can’t see it. It can build up a dense feeling toward the end and it makes me happier.”

When you need a moment of quiet, contemplation, or ease in the coming week, I encourage you to watch Celmins’ film or any of the films in the Slow Down collection of the “Explore” feature [on our website.]

I invite you to give yourself some time to explore some of this work–by yourself or with friends, family, students, or colleagues–or something else with spaciousness, rhythm, a riot of fall color, rest.