Storage and stagnation

In physics, they speak of “potential” energy  -- the energy held within an object, due either from its position or from its composition (ie, the chemical bonds that hold its molecules together). And then there is “kinetic” energy – the energy of movement; potential energy unleashed; the energy of work; the energy of change.

While conversing with some new friends, I started thinking about change versus permanence (which really started sounding more like “stagnation”). In the context of art, for example, my husband noted that though he’s glad that there are art museums where we can view, contemplate, and be inspired by great works of art, there are those who consider museums to be art graveyards. Art frozen in time. Frozen on walls. All of that creative energy, all of that inspiration and work – captured (trapped?) in a painting or sculpture. Until…?

Now, I don’t espouse eliminating museums or destroying great works of art, and I can come up with plenty of arguments about how those works are not dead at all, because they continue to inspire and instigate. But at the same time, it makes me wonder how those artists – if they were alive – would feel about their art being frozen indefinitely on a wall somewhere. Perhaps some of them would be proud that they had left their mark on the world… created something of beauty that outlasted their own earthly existence. But maybe some of them would feel differently. Might they feel limited? Trapped? Pigeonholed? Misunderstood? It’s possible.


Certainly, a lot of energy goes into the creation of art. Physical energy. Emotional energy. Mental energy. Creative energy. Might all that energy then be stored as potential energy locked inside, only to be released when the art is somehow changed? That change could be its destruction: All the potential energy being converted to light and heat of the flames. Not only the chemical bonds of the materials but the emotional and creative energy fueling the fire.

Yet another law of physics states that energy is never created or destroyed. It only changes form – released and recycled, potentially to create something else. I know in my own experience in witnessing art on fire that waves of inspiration and creativity have passed through me – perhaps freed by the fire and pausing if only temporarily to spark something in me.