Flow in the Zone, Volume I, A Global Perspective on the
Inner Experience of the Traditional Artist, publié en 2010 par Xhyra Graf . C'est
moi-même qui en ai signé l'introduction que voici:
Experiencing "flow" over so many years has become a kind of phenomena that is part of
my life, with the always renewed excitement and bizarre side effects. Actually, I think that I
distinguish several sequences -each one carrying part of the flow- covering the process in
three main moves: before, during and after the climax. Excitement and stress covers a large
panel of tasks, physical and mental ones. There is a relatively long period that can last for
months, where I define a theme that can be declined over an undefined number of works that
I call a series. Later, when working out the concepts, I know, I know, I feel, I understand when
the series is finalized and that another series - mostly within a continuation/ discontinuation
relationship - has to come into maturation. And some people feel that all these series are
a coherent corpus where they reckon a "continuum" to be. I myself, of course, see it as
a "corpus", or better said, as a process.
We can say that the first group of sequences, a kind of warming up period, covers all the
tasks related to preparation. Let us assume that I have finally a clear picture about what I am
going to represent and how I will work it out. This is the most crucial part of the process, quite
heavy but already tinted with excitement and challenging items. Most of the time, it happens
in bed, between sleeping, dreaming and insomnia; Actually mixing all of these conscious and
non-conscious stages. Sometimes, I jump out of the bed for sketching or fixing the concepts
by words. In the meantime, during daytime, I start to collect the material that I need, and if
necessary, due to my nomad lifestyle, I reconstruct a basic configuration of a studio. Then
already my behavior is tinted with febrile signals and -even though I'm not in the fully creative
process- I already have the "avant-goût” or foretaste to the flow. If this avant-goût shall not be
strong and tasteful, a little bit "grisant", then I know that I have to reconsider the concepts or the
subject etc. and that I have to wait for a next wave. Sometimes, it can take months and years
between waves, it is not a regular move like the sea, like the "ebbe en vloed". On the contrary, it
is out of command, out of control and subject to malicious interferences.
But, it has to be stressed that the warm up is already part of the flow and that it generates
already the same kind of cognitive syndrome with the main characteristics fully underlaying
the action. By identifying how I will construct the stuff, I have already this fusional relation to
the concept that is so strong that it becomes difficult to be involved in other activities such as
family relations, commercial and legal matters, small talks, etc... On the contrary, I become then
such a monomaniacal person that I have to hide a little, otherwise unprepared people feels that
I am a lunatic. Of course, my beloved wife knows moreover what is going on and doesn't feel
doomed when I'm raising the sail. Although the concepts are very abstract and paradoxical, she
is listening, catching probably part of my excitement. Of course, I have tried to share this noetic
experience with professionals, discussing with gallerist, critics, art teachers and... plasticians.
Most remain polite and try to dissimulate that they don't understand a clue. So, I stopped talking
with people about the flow and the intellectual or rational package around it.
Should I describe the climax, the minutes and hours when -finally- I am into the creative
process, fighting with the material, guiding it, whispering to it, waiting with patience and
concentration during the drying up periods and then reaching the end, the summum, the climax,
succeeding to incorporate hazard, accidents and accepting a little piece of shit, or not accepting
it. Then I sing and dance, many times physically. I have the feeling that life is burning at my arm
length sometimes. I really feel even that I become somebody else, not like playing Pygmalion,
but, anyway, coming closer and closer to the mystery of human intelligence, trigging out the
maximum of it, forgetting my ego, becoming fusional with the stuff and feeling somewhere that I
humbly am climbing up the three of knowledge - l'arbre de la connaissance. Yes, it is a little like
becoming drunk or taking some drugs, but much more intense and loaded with awareness, not
simply mechanical at all. Actually, I feel drugs and alcohol are like a threat for the flow, and the
morning after, I don't have a hangover. You can't really not compare it to an orgasm, and there
is not such a thing as “Post coïtum omne animal triste est”
Then comes the “descente", climbing down the mountain, feeling quite exhausted and
running to bed, a little anxious about what I will face when I will come back to the studio.
Disappointment, or still satisfaction? What will be the comment that I will collect from my wife,
from other people when I sent them a miserable digital picture? I then have to face megatons of
idiotic sentences; the more extreme being the ones expressing things a little like a football fan
supporting one piece above the others... There the flow finishes abruptly. I have to hide my stuff
for years before I can face it again, completely swallowed and alienated. Sometimes I wonder if
it is me that did the job.
Think about the stupid allure that most plasticians have at their vernissage or finissage. Think
about... they had a kind of secret orgasm, a while ago, and now they have almost forgotten
what happened in that quasi-conscious state, and they have to look friendly and enthusiastic
with people not knowing that new flows are in the pipe, much more exciting, much more
devastating and tasteful than these old and obsolete pieces.
José-Xavier Polet
Experiencing "flow" over so many years has become a kind of phenomena that is part of
my life, with the always renewed excitement and bizarre side effects. Actually, I think that I
distinguish several sequences -each one carrying part of the flow- covering the process in
three main moves: before, during and after the climax. Excitement and stress covers a large
panel of tasks, physical and mental ones. There is a relatively long period that can last for
months, where I define a theme that can be declined over an undefined number of works that
I call a series. Later, when working out the concepts, I know, I know, I feel, I understand when
the series is finalized and that another series - mostly within a continuation/ discontinuation
relationship - has to come into maturation. And some people feel that all these series are
a coherent corpus where they reckon a "continuum" to be. I myself, of course, see it as
a "corpus", or better said, as a process.
We can say that the first group of sequences, a kind of warming up period, covers all the
tasks related to preparation. Let us assume that I have finally a clear picture about what I am
going to represent and how I will work it out. This is the most crucial part of the process, quite
heavy but already tinted with excitement and challenging items. Most of the time, it happens
in bed, between sleeping, dreaming and insomnia; Actually mixing all of these conscious and
non-conscious stages. Sometimes, I jump out of the bed for sketching or fixing the concepts
by words. In the meantime, during daytime, I start to collect the material that I need, and if
necessary, due to my nomad lifestyle, I reconstruct a basic configuration of a studio. Then
already my behavior is tinted with febrile signals and -even though I'm not in the fully creative
process- I already have the "avant-goût” or foretaste to the flow. If this avant-goût shall not be
strong and tasteful, a little bit "grisant", then I know that I have to reconsider the concepts or the
subject etc. and that I have to wait for a next wave. Sometimes, it can take months and years
between waves, it is not a regular move like the sea, like the "ebbe en vloed". On the contrary, it
is out of command, out of control and subject to malicious interferences.
But, it has to be stressed that the warm up is already part of the flow and that it generates
already the same kind of cognitive syndrome with the main characteristics fully underlaying
the action. By identifying how I will construct the stuff, I have already this fusional relation to
the concept that is so strong that it becomes difficult to be involved in other activities such as
family relations, commercial and legal matters, small talks, etc... On the contrary, I become then
such a monomaniacal person that I have to hide a little, otherwise unprepared people feels that
I am a lunatic. Of course, my beloved wife knows moreover what is going on and doesn't feel
doomed when I'm raising the sail. Although the concepts are very abstract and paradoxical, she
is listening, catching probably part of my excitement. Of course, I have tried to share this noetic
experience with professionals, discussing with gallerist, critics, art teachers and... plasticians.
Most remain polite and try to dissimulate that they don't understand a clue. So, I stopped talking
with people about the flow and the intellectual or rational package around it.
Should I describe the climax, the minutes and hours when -finally- I am into the creative
process, fighting with the material, guiding it, whispering to it, waiting with patience and
concentration during the drying up periods and then reaching the end, the summum, the climax,
succeeding to incorporate hazard, accidents and accepting a little piece of shit, or not accepting
it. Then I sing and dance, many times physically. I have the feeling that life is burning at my arm
length sometimes. I really feel even that I become somebody else, not like playing Pygmalion,
but, anyway, coming closer and closer to the mystery of human intelligence, trigging out the
maximum of it, forgetting my ego, becoming fusional with the stuff and feeling somewhere that I
humbly am climbing up the three of knowledge - l'arbre de la connaissance. Yes, it is a little like
becoming drunk or taking some drugs, but much more intense and loaded with awareness, not
simply mechanical at all. Actually, I feel drugs and alcohol are like a threat for the flow, and the
morning after, I don't have a hangover. You can't really not compare it to an orgasm, and there
is not such a thing as “Post coïtum omne animal triste est”
Then comes the “descente", climbing down the mountain, feeling quite exhausted and
running to bed, a little anxious about what I will face when I will come back to the studio.
Disappointment, or still satisfaction? What will be the comment that I will collect from my wife,
from other people when I sent them a miserable digital picture? I then have to face megatons of
idiotic sentences; the more extreme being the ones expressing things a little like a football fan
supporting one piece above the others... There the flow finishes abruptly. I have to hide my stuff
for years before I can face it again, completely swallowed and alienated. Sometimes I wonder if
it is me that did the job.
Think about the stupid allure that most plasticians have at their vernissage or finissage. Think
about... they had a kind of secret orgasm, a while ago, and now they have almost forgotten
what happened in that quasi-conscious state, and they have to look friendly and enthusiastic
with people not knowing that new flows are in the pipe, much more exciting, much more
devastating and tasteful than these old and obsolete pieces.
José-Xavier Polet
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