1980s Ramada chairs & me

We have these chairs that my mother and Joe bought from a Ramada Inn that was being remodeled in Georgia in the mid-80s. That's also where we got the windows for the house. 

But these chairs, wood and naugahyde, have seen better days. They had seen better days 20 years ago. At some point last year I started recovering the seats, since some of the covers barely existed. I did a stool (that wasn't part of the Ramada stash) and three chairs. The fourth and last chair languished. 

This morning, I found myself at loose ends and started uncovering it. De-covering it?  Stripping it naked. There are 31 Staples in the paper cover.  There are twice that many in just the front edge of the naugahyde cover. There are 32 upholstery nails around the outside edges. 

It takes a lot longer to undo it than to do it.  As I was sitting here doing it, I was thinking about how deconstruction is as much of the creative process as construction.

Recovering a chair seat with some foam and some cloth and some new upholstery nails and some staples from a staple gun is not the most creative thing in the world. But then again, it's pretty creative. 

Depends on definitions I guess. Is it craft or ART? Does it have something to say or is it just decorative? Etc. What is its goal, its purpose, its strategy?

Well, to keep this out of the landfill (or out of the burn pile as it were); to not buy it, cause it's creation, zero carbon, and zero exploitation; to likewise not need to sell my time in order to buy it; to have a comfortable and funky place to sit; to inhabit my house with eclecticism. That's pretty creative, and pretty useful, and pretty strategic.