Percy Maimela’s creativity was trapped. And he had no idea. Until one day it escaped. Stuck in a dead-end job, Maimela’s life changed when he stumbled upon spilled salt on a storeroom floor. He left the broom where it lent and crouched down, allowing himself to reimagine the possibilities in the grains as his hands began to push them about the floor. By the time he stood up he had created a picture, pioneering a new form of art.
Maimela didn’t spend much longer on the storeroom floor in the building where he worked as a merchandiser. Because on that day he not only saw salt from a new angle, but himself as well. With reinvigorated energy for life he has become a full time Ground Artist, using the material around him to produce art.
The career transition has had its difficulties. Maimela admits that in life the temptation is always towards security. But risk brings opportunity and so Maimela is challenging himself. He believes that the possibility is there to experience the world anew each and every day. We live in a country that allows us to reimagine the ordinary things in life and, as he puts it, “be strange”. Through that freedom Maimela has transitioned from merchandiser to artist.
