Time is All I Have

Our free time to do what makes us happy is often devoted to relaxation as an antidote to the unpleasant tasks required of us at work and the ardor of being adults. We farm out our entertainment to movies, music, sports and games and form bonds with folk who share our taste. In the midst of this modern lifestyle we can neglect to create our own original experiences and artifacts that can help remind us over the years of a life well spent

I admit I was afflicted with a sensibility about time and mortality at a much younger age than most people. This was no morose Victorian fear of the grim reaper but perhaps the air I breathed in my youth in India helped me understand we do not step in the same stream twice. If I was the blind recipient of cultural inputs and create none of my own then my own life, loves, passions and desires would fade into vague memories over time

What did my imperfect self stand for across my life? How could I encode personal data of this nature into the documentation of my life? It seemed my artwork and creative artifacts held valuable insight as part of its imperfections

Carving a shadow

The self we now know as Zan Hoffman, or in Vigo as MOTHERFUCKINGZANHOFFMAN, began its journey as I entered college at Drake University and started a cassette label to release original music, trade and collaborate with artists worldwide. My work and the artifacts of 27 years of my label activities became entwined with my artistic identity and put me in the “lucky” position I find myself in today

X’s never marks my spot
Tick-tock tick-tock tick-tock
Time to start
Time to stop
Time to leave
Time is all I have

As an experimental artist and cook I leave options open until the last possible moment so I can allow last-minute data to be part of my creative decision-making. Over the years I relish in allowing my breakthroughs in one artistic pursuit cross-pollinate others. In the process my life became part of this virtuous-circle

At one point about a decade ago my life became unexpectedly dull, somewhat humorless and frankly, un-Zanlike. The moment Galicia became part of my life was when I bounced back. Years later it occurred to me that the vitality of my system depended on a healthy diet of new data-sets

It’s now accepted neuro-science that mental decay in old age can be reduced by keeping mentally active and engaged in new things. I was living proof of this before I got old. I was also blind to the aruvedic notions of India which put great emphasis on your diet as it relates to the cognitive as well as physical needs of your system

Modern science took ages to determine what was accepted aruvedic fact of thousands of years ~ that the key curry ingredient tumeric is good for memory. So with my diet un-Americanized and a rich new data-set of Galicia my system has been achieving things I’ve never known or reached for before

Oh time ~ I’m not your enemy

MAY 23, 2017

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