The elemental nature of welding is raw, the fire and metal visceral, essential. One welder can make seemingly timeless relics, as to all appearances, as timeless as the elements themselves. And like Promethius usurped fire from the heavens, so too can the welded piece appear to steal long measures of time from the forces of decay, time which would moulder away other relics past the point of recognizable.
So when I visited the Welding Department’s booth at the Sierra College Rocklin City’s Mini Maker Faire this last Saturday, I initially lost myself not just in the design and craftsmanship of this welded helmet, but also the evocative way the piece bids one to imagine this same headgear in the heat of a battle centuries past. For a moment it seems as though the helmet has previously existed in this exact form for ages, and will endure into a future so expansive, it appears endless. But thoughts of perpetuity fade fast walking through the remainder of booths as one major theme of the event recurs, that all materials are in the constant process of becoming something else.
The becoming of other was the entire purpose of the ReCreate booth, where you could see a mountain of recyclables being moved by little hands into patterns and sculptures children are so keen to create. The water bottle you might have drank last week could have become the arms of ReCreate’s giant dinosaur, crafted from repurposed materials. And it’s very possible that the metal helmet in the welding booth will someday become repurposed into some other unimaginable thing in an unimaginable future.
The Maker Faire in general and the evocative characteristic of the welded helmet more specifically offer audiences a valuable occasion to reflect and explore impermanence. This opportunity is very powerful because it is the awareness of impermanence that initiates a person’s chance to increase the quality of his or her present moment, and so his or her life. When one acknowledges that nothing will stay the same, one is motivated to more deeply appreciate the given moment in which those things exist as they are, and as they will never be again. Such urgency can be very motivational.
The experience to appreciate is one of the gifts the creative process brings to life, both through the making of and the exposure to art. Art is an occasion to participate authentically, to critically observe, to push forth one’s understanding of a thing into new territory which gives meaning, purpose and presence to a moment. It is a vehicle by which we can gain expertise in living fully, and invariably leads to appreciating life.
The inevitable truth of corporeal existence is impermanence, such as the Maker Faire’s constant reiterating reminds us. And in the exercise of making and observing, of welding and observing the welded, in repurposing the empty water bottle or cardboard box, we can participate in truth of impermanence, allowing it to inspire and guide the manner in which we spend our precious and fleeting time.
Here are some more photos from the Sierra College Mini Maker Fair.
