Rhinoceros

Well, it has been quite sometime since my last blog. I ended up taking a far lengthier break from writing than expected, due to a very hectic end to 2011 and beginning of 2012! I experienced a professional and creative success that was not anticipated and it really did demand all of my time and energy. How funny is it that being creative in one aspect can actually stifle creativity in another?

Nonetheless, our project Shishonnah with its debut album released in November, has really picked up momentum. Our performances in March were very successful and we have already started production on the second album along with many other projects which will be announced soon! So, after all of the craziness of the New Year and March Madness, I found myself overlooking Lake Michigan at sunset in Chicago, instantly inspired to write. I was attending a rehearsal for a small theater company that I compose music for. They are putting on a production of Rhinoceros-a comedy and social commentary of sorts about people who abruptly morph into rhinoceroses and take over the town. Now, it is a lot more involved than that and the play has many moments of hilarity and irony. Not to mention this particular production is well cast which adds to the amusement. But, the intended theme to take away from the performance is that rhinoceroses, or anyone in fact who is discriminated against merely because of their physical appearance, can in actuality, be beautiful.

A nice thought, huh? Maybe a bit too Kumbayah for some of you, but definitely a creative way of conveying a sometimes cliched social observation. Especially, in our current cultural climate where we are inundated with news surrounding celebrity gossip and scandal, current beauty trends, recent non FDA approved weight loss drugs, the latest in plastic surgery, The Real Housewives of Timbuktu, and all sorts of nonsense. Now, this blog is not meant to be a social commentary of sorts-are you sensing the irony?-but merely a creative commentary on an old world in a new century.

My mentor's wife spoke about artists in an interesting way once, when we were having dinner. She said, "Artists are not happy with the world around them, so in order to fulfill a need to re-create the world, they creating works of art, thus creating their own world."  As one who prides herself as an artist, I had never thought of the act of being creative in those terms. She had an interesting point of view and one that took me only until last night at a rehearsal above the great lake to realize what she was really saying. Are all artists trying to re-create the world? Are writers, photographers, singers, dancers, actors, designers, producers, and the like trying to re-create the world? And, if so-if there are really millions of creative and hopefully talented and intelligent individuals out there trying to re-create the world; well, then why is the world full of so much....crap?

And, I'm not talking about just the obvious crap of war, hate, poverty, genocide, etc., but the creative crap-the amateur in nature. Why does the run-of-the mill and the status quo dominate the airwaves and pre-occupy the minds of billions of teenagers, adolescents, and adults alike all over the world? When did crap become more desired than art? The answer is...since the dawn of time! Since art began. But, that is a whole other conversation entirely and this is not meant to be a political or overtly philosophical blog as I formerly mentioned.  I just couldn't help but think this way last night as I watched this hilarious play and started composing the music for it.

The Rhinoceros......considered by most to be aesthetically, one of nature's ugliest animals. Maybe, in the minds of some-say, in comparison to the peacock-crap? Perhaps, we need to take a closer look at this animal. Maybe, just like the author of of Rhinoceros, we can look deeper behind the mere aesthetics and see what's really there. A tough, courageous animal that lives in the most beautiful and rough terrain in the world. An artist would. Picasso in fact, would probably paint it its dimensions in cubes, stripes, inversions, and turn it into something that wouldn't even resemble a rhinoceros anymore.

Maybe, we could do that to the real crap out there. Invert it, change it's dimensions and turn it into a work of art. That's all us artists are trying to do anyway...right? What if we could go a step further? Maybe invert one another-humanity. What could we create then? The Hopi of the North American Plains believe that the world re-creates itself. In fact, they believe that it has re-created itself five times and that we are currently in the Fifth World.  I wonder how much the Rhino has changed during all five worlds. Regardless, it makes me think and makes me want to create. It's going to be beautiful weather this weekend and I know exactly which exhibit I'm visiting first at the zoo!

Blessings,

Jenne