Everyone has a creative side. Feeding that part of ourselves is life enhancing and vital to our emotional and spiritual wellbeing.
I am convinced that our jails and rehabs are filled to the brim with very creative individuals. People who for the most part, didn't have the opportunity to learn a craft.
Having the desire to create something, regardless of the medium, but not having the necessary tools with which to express that desire, equals great frustration, which can in turn equal anger and feelings of alienation.
When an individual lives and breaths the creative process, regardless of the discipline, life takes on a very different dimension. It's the other end of the spectrum. The true 'creative' only feels well, whole, safe, at peace, when they are following their creative path, and there it seems lies the dichotomy.
I am always pondering this issue, but with the death of Michael Jackson, it has come to the forefront for all of us.
It's clear that MJ was only truly happy and whole when he was performing and expressing himself creatively. One only has to look at his performance of Billie Jean at the Motown awards in 1983 to see that this man did completely live and breath for his music and dance.
The problem is that given his success and cult status, he had to live in the real world of agents, minders, hangers on, fans, gruelling schedules, and being under a constant and piercing spot light.
Consequently for this man his bliss, dance and music, became his nemesis.
As somone who has dedicated their life to the creative process, but who is not a celebrity, I know how difficult it is to follow the creative path, and at the same time function within a society that for the most part sees the artist as an outsider...on the edge of things, different, and so on.
My happiest times are when I have a sense of rhythm and harmony in my days. When I am painting, writing and communing with nature.
This self portrait painted in Wales at a very happy time shows me wearing my favourite walking hat!
A Bientot
A moment of silence in his memory. RIP.
Michael Jackson's Funeral - VIDEO here...