The act of creation is in its very essence a translation: we translate the world, or more precisely our perception of the world into a piece of art, but this perception of the world is already itself a translation. We are all translators because we are all creators. Each time we open our eyes, hear a sound, touch an object, smell an odor or taste food we are translating our environment into feelings. Our whole body is continuously translating! Then these feelings, the raw material of our mind, are translated into concepts and words. This is when the artist will have to go further. His sensibility will allow him to find passion, logic, chaos and sometimes even a hidden diamond in this raw material; he will see the beauty and the tragedy of the world with particular intensity.

Then happens the next step in the act of creation: the externalization, which is a new translation, and probably the most difficult one, because imperfect by nature. When I compose music or when I write a text I know that the writer block doesn’t happen because I don’t have anything to say but because I know that whatever I write will be a pale representation of what I want to say, of what is in my mind. Craft is important, it allows us to be more precise, but even the old master won’t be able to translate his mind perfectly into his art. This is why art is a work of humility. When the artist understands that his art is always imprecise he will start letting the world speak for itself.