At a certain point in my life, I realised that I was creative.
For me creativity has been an anchor, saving me from routine and repetitive work. Life means changing, and being blocked in a static situation is against nature. We need to do a job that makes us happy and gives us the joy to live. We need to be paid for a job that we will do even unpaid.
Work that is not "work" but play, divertion. Our gurù Osho urges us to live life like a game. In English the verb "to play" means to play,but also to play a musical instrument and play in the theatre. The same can be said also in French and German. And it is obvious, in fact, that, pianists and actors play a game. The privilege of the artist is that of being paid for an activity that makes him happy. But does this happen only in art? I am not saying that.
Any kind of work can make us happy. Even the work of a pornostar. Then, a cook is extremely creative. We are all prefabricated thanks to the numerous re-incarnations we have had. As far as I am concerned, I am an artist. As such I express whatever you like, with a picture or a sculpture, as an actor, as a writer or humorist poet. As pornostar I cannot manage to do it. In German art you say "kunst" and the root, the etymology, is the verb "kennen" which means to know. Art is thought, is knowledge and it is this which distinquishes it from craftsmanship. One may be a good painter but not a great artist. The artist, in my opinion, has one extra gear, often involving a whiff of folly. Personally I have no problems because I have been three times in a psychiatric clinic. Dino Campaana passed his life in a madhouse.
Alda Merini only ten years. Antonin Artaud was subjected in his time to electroshock treatment while enrolled in an insulin coma. Nietzsche died in a mad -house, while Van Gogh - after entering one - chose suicide. In my opinion Leonardo and Michelangelo were artists confined in their celestial spheres. They were not simply artists and, they were angels and Michelangelo was one by name. He was the angel Michael. Both were homosexuals. Leonardo was tried for sodomy, through which it came out above all that he never had a relationship with a woman. Art then is thought. Neapolitans - if you will excuse me -say: "the prick does not need thought". But artists think and perhaps for this reason, even if they may be active sexually, they can not be porn stars. Painters especially will often frequent prostitutes. Enough to think of Bukowsky, Toulose Lutrec, Otto Dix, Henry Miller, and yours truly. Renato Guttuso instead preferred serious women and in fact had a long relationship with Marta Marzotto. A general of Hitler was stripped of his rank because it became known that his beautiful wife was an ex prostitute. Even Jesus, with Mary Madelene, frequented prostitutes ,probably chastely. As far as my artist activities are concerned, I have a great sense of humour and make use of it. I like to make people laugh, play the clown and I do it professionally, seriously. But obviously even clowns are serious persons. Marx was serious but also the Marx brothers who made people laugh. My great gurù Osho has told us to be on our guard against those who are too serious. One of the most serious persons of the last century -apart from Buster Keaton -was Adolf Hitler. And, to tell the truth, Hitler was also a painter;
But a serious painter without a whiff of folly.
His folly -to our cost - was to go into politics.
