We conceived of Notch Magazine in fits and starts. Inspiration appeared and vanished like a mirage, dissolving on occasion and leaving behind swaths of arid land. In retrospect, meandering through the desert was a necessary stage of our becoming in the world. The careful dance of courting the mirage is intimately familiar to artists. So when it came time to choose our first issue’s theme, we chose to pay homage to periods of weighted absence that precede presence.

Potential Energy is anchored in asymmetry—a person has potential in relation to a future state in which they have accomplished more. The ball at the top of the ramp realizes its potential when it rests at the bottom, as does the toiling writer when his words finally take shape. The space between present and future is the neck of an hourglass in which ideas transform from the vague realm of the imaginary into something that can be shared—a metamorphosis that is invisible to all but the creator.

But unlike a grain of sand in an hourglass or ball on a ramp, the potential of an artist is neither fixed nor known. There is a uniquely human phenomenon of energy expenditure begetting greater potential: the more we create, the more we seem to be capable of. With each success, the promise of what might come is more acute. Artistic creation defies the laws of physics that describe the relationship of potential and actualization as inverse. Artists are not closed systems—bring together all the grains of sand in an hourglass, and they will discover a mirage.

For this issue, we asked our artists to meditate on the top half of the hourglass. In response, we received Madeline Haze Curtis’ confrontation of boundlessness, Nibha Akireddy’s paintings in progress, Dagoberto Gilb’s depiction of a tipping point (real or imagined), Brice Afonso’s video queering the inexorable march of evolution, Clara Zimmerman’s analysis of Bergson’s potentiality, and many more remarkable conjurings.

In these pages you will encounter our contributors’ footprints through the desert. We hope that in following them, you stay attuned to shimmering apparitions you may encounter along the way.