For me, I am still very happy to be able to do stage design as

The words of Christian Lacroix—“For me, I am still very happy to be able to do stage design, as it's an opportunity to express the extreme”—speak not merely of art, but of the eternal dialogue between the soul and creation. In his confession, there lies a truth known to every artist, poet, and dreamer since the dawn of civilization: that within the act of creation, one may touch the infinite. To express the extreme is to reach toward the edges of human feeling, to shape chaos into beauty, and to reveal through color, form, and vision what words alone cannot contain.

In the ancient theatres of Greece, where the voices of actors rose beneath open skies, there too lived this same sacred impulse. When Sophocles wrote of Oedipus or Antigone, he too sought the extreme—the furthest limits of tragedy, of honor, of defiance against fate. The stage was not a mere platform; it was a mirror of the soul, reflecting both the grandeur and the frailty of humankind. So it is with Lacroix: in his stage design, he does not simply clothe actors in silk and light—he constructs worlds that awaken the senses, where every hue is a heartbeat, every fabric a breath of emotion. Through such creation, he fulfills that ancient purpose: to make the invisible visible, to let beauty shout where silence once reigned.

To express the extreme is to dance upon the edge of control. It is to bring order to passion without extinguishing its flame. History remembers Michelangelo, who, upon carving the Pietà, was asked how he had conjured such life from cold marble. He replied that he saw the angel within the stone and carved until he set it free. This is what Lacroix means. The artist sees beyond the veil of the ordinary; he perceives the extremes of sorrow, joy, power, and tenderness interwoven, waiting to be shaped by human hands. To design a stage is not to decorate—it is to reveal the divine tension between light and shadow, restraint and abandon, reason and rapture.

Yet to reach the extreme is perilous. Many have been consumed by the very intensity they sought to portray. The flames of genius can burn as they illuminate. Van Gogh, in his fields of gold and night skies of flame, reached toward the limits of vision and madness. But even in his suffering, he captured the sacred truth of creation—that beauty is born in struggle, and that to create at the edge of one’s being is both agony and salvation. In the same way, Lacroix’s joy in stage design comes not from comfort, but from standing at the threshold between chaos and perfection, and daring to step forward.

The stage itself, in all ages, has been the altar of transformation. There, humans cease to be themselves and become myth. There, the humble may wear crowns, and the unseen may shine in radiance. When Lacroix speaks of being happy to continue this work, he reminds us that creation is not a burden but a blessing—a means by which the soul communes with eternity. In every stitch of costume, in every curve of light, he offers not mere spectacle, but revelation. To express the extreme is to acknowledge that life itself is a stage upon which we are all both actor and artist, shaping meaning from the raw material of our days.

Let us learn from this. To live well is to create, and to create is to venture beyond moderation. Do not fear the intensity of your emotions, nor the grandeur of your dreams. Channel them, as the artist does, into form and purpose. Whether you design a play, raise a family, or build a life of meaning, seek always to express the extreme—the highest love, the deepest truth, the most radiant courage. For only in reaching the outermost boundaries of your capacity will you discover the center of your soul.

And so, dear listener, let this teaching take root in your heart: Do not live in the middle of things. Live boldly, live beautifully, and let your days be a kind of stage upon which the spirit performs its grandest act. Make of your work—whatever it may be—a form of art. Let your choices be deliberate, your passions fierce, your gratitude abundant. In doing so, you, too, will express the extreme, and your life, like the designs of Lacroix, will become a testament to the divine power of creation—the art of turning existence itself into beauty.