Creativity

We live in an age which seems to equate creativity with mass media. If it sells, it's art. I suppose this could be one explanation of why rap music, a doltish and violent perversion of language in the guise of poetry, is considered creative over and over and over again. But creativity is more than a Martha Stewart craft project or a music video. Creativity is an inherent and vital part of being human. And, in creativity's higher forms, it is the transformation of the mundane and common into the sublime and awe-inspiring. Stone into sculpture. Concrete and glass into architecture. Tomatoes into bisque. Part of creativity is destruction. Stone must be chipped and cracked. Gravel and lime have to be ground. Sand has to be melted. Tomatoes have to be peeled, crushed and pureed. I thought of this today as I dissembled a humble cubicle I had built in my basement to house my computer and personal archives. The cubicle was made of lumber which has been a bed, a coffee table, lamp tables and even a dining table over the past eight years, as I have moved from place to place. Dismantling it from its recent form was very satisfying, despite my earlier disappointment in finding my basement too cold for a sedentary workplace. I attribute this ability to destroy and create happily from meager materials to my practice, which helps me to remember that all things are temporary and that every moment holds the potential for both creativity and destruction.