Artist Nathan Hayden discusses Time and Meditation.
Tags: Artist, Nathan Hayden, Louisville Ky, Kentucky, California

Nathan Hayden is a visual artist based in California.

Nathan Hayden — http://nathan-hayden.com/

Nathan Hayden’s solo exhibition work spans close to two decades; his organic shapes, patterns, and sequences have a profound transcendental quality. Hayden conjures elements of nature, but simultaneously these elements maintain a subtle but extraterrestrial origin. In our most recent chat, Nathan Hayden discusses his influences with psychedelic impressions, dual notions of time, deep work, and how he communicates through his art.

Ai: Hey, Nathan, Hope you’ve been well. How have you been dealing with the times? Any thoughts on the passage of time?

Nathan: It’s one of those interesting times when the days seem really long. But they're all are kind of similar..so there's this compression and expansion of time. There’s this feeling of “when is this day going to be over?”, But then, there is this sort of rhythmic thing, and we’re by ourselves in the pandemic. There's this repetition, and for that reason, it's hard to remember; what happened in July…..Is it different then what happened in June?

Ai: That’s a really interesting way of describing it.

Nathan: I’ve been thinking a lot about time more than I generally do. And thinking about what that does mean in relation to making objects because I’m primarily an object-based artist. I think you have to define what time is, which is the idea of objects moving through space and keeping track of that. I’m interested in different types of time. A watch, moves through space much differently from the human body, animals, or other living organisms. For me, something is exciting about the time that happens when I’m working, especially when I'm doing a big project or a wall drawing.

Sometimes I have a certain amount of time that's bracketed by mechanical time, the sort that’s measured by a clock, specifying the time I have to finish it.

But If I have the opportunity to spend the entire day on the project and I don't have to worry about clocking-in or clocking-out, I basically sleep and take breaks to eat.

Other than that, I’m just looking at the pattern I’ve done, and it starts to talk to me and develops a conversation. And that becomes very meditative. The pattern tells me what it needs next; it starts to be less and less about decision-making. I call it “talking to the wall.”

That, to me, is more connected to that organic time; it becomes more meditative. Sometimes I work for 15 hour days just to get into that meditative state and stay there…. I think if I were to stay there more than a week, there would probably be some health risks. But for about a week, it's a really amazing experience, and really amazing things come out of it.

Ai: That meditative process. Did it develop naturally, or did it come from some external source of inspiration?

Nathan: I think you could say it's organic. However, those differences are tough to separate. I’m not an outsider artist by any stretch of the imagination. I have knowledge of artists working contemporarily and within the various historical context. Maybe we’re thinking of things in similar ways, maybe Agnes Martin, for example, she’s got this meditation, probably making really subtle, simple decisions. When I think of it, that's just how I imagine how she’d work.

I’ve always used music as a stimulant of sorts, for ideas. Part of that is a practice of dancing to music in order to get blood flowing and ideas flowing to my head. Whenever I’m doing wall drawings, I have music going, and If I get stuck on an idea, I just dance for 10 or 15 minutes. And I don't know; it makes the brain pliable in a way that allows you to receive the message.

Lauren Halsey made this awesome food bank since the pandemic hit. They've been bringing a massive amount of farm-fresh foods to South LA and Watts… they're giving it away, and that’s just amazing. When people care on that level, that’s just amazing.