What is the relationship between narrative impulse and occasional context?

For me it is a mystery, something difficult to unravel.

The narrative impulse, as desire, as mood, as daring, always seems to be following its own path, drawing inspiration from its preceding marks, remaining in its own autonomous universe.

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Dreams of self-sufficiency? Fantasies of immersion in some absolute?

The truth is that despite such intense moments of uncertainty, some of them very close to us, the act of going to work, of resuming the pulse of pending narratives, does not seem to accelerate, nor to be hindered, nor to enter into indecision, more than usual.

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He continued as usual, with his usual slowness, his freedom of movement, his pauses and well-known audacity.

However, the feeling of confinement was present, bad news was feared, and some daily routines were greatly altered.

But work remained a haven, largely disregarding possible futures, trying to maintain its deep-rooted habituality.

It's hard to explain how, in the face of such unexpected and threatening realities, there continues to be an almost indomitable impulse to go to work, and that's it!

Continuing with the habit and fulfilling the desire, delving into the labyrinths of the imagination and accepting challenges that perhaps only make sense to someone who is using that language as a life experience.

The work of painting is always solitary and silent, yet it also occurs in a hazy community, where fragments of admired traditions, dreams of impossible lives, and interlocutors who may never be present intermingle.

But it is undoubtedly a dialogue between what is and what is not, what was and what could not be, and every promise that cannot be renounced, even if it is difficult to glimpse.

Thus, the reality of the imagination cures the unreality of the world, and unburdens itself into a glass that is almost always full.

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We have built, we are building, and we will build bridges, almost unintentionally, due to the inertia and habit that a craft as rudimentary as it is beautiful generates in us.

 

Tulio de Sagastizabal, September 2022.