The Non-Clock

Robert Brooks...February 25, 2017

Robert's Non-Clock

I mentioned in my last post that I was going to share with you a few of the artists that I got introduced to this past week in Deland, FL at the Art's Tour.  

I can't remember when I've experienced such a wide variety of approaches to art and creativity.  But Robert Brooks exemplifies a sense of story and beliefs that just blew me away.  Robert (who suffers from Parkinson's) is prolific in his need to express his feelings about life and time.  You can see his gallery here.

Bob works in pen and ink, pencil, acrylic and oils. He is a sculptor and a picture framer, a poet and has a doctorate in Christian Education.  All of his work is exemplary and stunning!  But the ones to which most of us are drawn are his wood sculptures.  They border on "steam punk" which you know would appeal to me!  

Some of his most recent works reflect his feeling about time and it's influence on our lives.  I was personally drawn to his non-clock for lots of reasons.  He calls his work "whimsical" but the depth of thought is very more than what that might lead you to think.  Although the clock ticks and the center sort of goes around, there are no numbers on his non clock and no hands to record time.  In fact the hands have been "locked" in a box at the base of the non-clock (you can see a padlock there).  Near the top is a compartment for "extra time" but it is empty and we really don't have any.  

Besides being a gorgeous piece of woodwork, the non-clock comes with a thought provoking poem.  

In the Passing of Time

In the passing of time

Three things all conspire

To measure our days

In seconds and hours.

The larger the hand,

The greater the power.

Each in it's own way

Set to devour.

First gentle in springtime,

Then summer and fall.

The older we get

They're not subtle at all.

What we need is a clock

That doesn't tell time.

No long pointy fingers there to remind

That we're late or we're early or even on time.

A slave to those hands I shall not be.

With no hands on the clock,

It's easy to see

That time doesn't count, if we're not counting time.

So let's live in the moment, the present, the now.

To those hands on the clock, let us not bow.

And really...

Who cares what time it is anyhow?

Robert Brooks