MEL VERA CRUZ: "WHY DO WE PRESERVE WHEN ALL ARE MEANT TO FADE?"
“Why do we preserve when all are meant to fade?” MEL VERA CRUZ March 2019 Interview Between Eileen Tabios (ET) and Mel Vera Cruz (MVC) I love dwelling in the dark. I feel at home in it. It’s where I feel nurtured and protected because of its silence and emptiness. It is where all my creative juices come from. This trance is my reality and it’s where I keep my balance because everyone’s afraid of the dark. They keep on rushing to the shiny and glossy like the moth to the flame. I must stay and impregnate the abyss because it’s where all creations come from. I must honor it so I won’t burnout and not be its slave like most people seem to be. —Mel Vera Cruz on “Rice Boy’s Deity” ET: Your statement regarding “Rice Boy’s Deity” seems to summarize a fundamental belief on your part about life and art. How did you come to think this way—about the dark, and the notion of “impregnating the abyss because it’s where all creations come from”? MVC: When I was young...