Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Creativity & Alchemy

Creativity---always interesting new definitions of it popping up here and there. In reading through an old pile of New York Times articles, saved for a rainy day (does snow count?), I came across a NYT magazine piece about Tom Binnes, artist extraordinaire of found objects. Jewelry and masks are among the prominent pieces in his collections from the past 20 years. That’s along and illustrious career!

What caught my eye was what Binns said about his own art: “I am always trying to reassess the value of something.”

Isn’t that what all creativity is about?

I have my saying, “There is always something new under the sun” on products through
www.cafepress.com/UPositve. What I mean by that is, I think, what Binns alludes to. That whether or not there are new factual objects in our universe, there is always a new way of seeing what’s already there. A new interpretation, a redefinition, a turning something on its side or upside down, whether it’s an object that can be held, a way of moving, a turn of phrase, a meaning or an insight.

Art, in all its forms, is in that way, alchemy. Turning something into something else.

We are all magicians!

---Batya