I was popping around through some old files today and I came upon the manuscript for one of my novels. I opened it up, just to have a glance, and I came upon this one passage where I was discussing how I had been painting…
 
Back when I wrote that novel, I lived in this flat in Hermosa Beach with a gigantic kitchen. I was really into painting big back then so I would cut a large piece of canvas off of the roll of canvas I had bought, and I would staple gun it to the wall. There, I would paint.
 
You know, painting takes effort. You have to buy the canvas, buy the paints, buy the brushes. Back then, I was into oil, so I also had to buy the turpentine and the thinner. …All before I could paint.
 
But, that was all good. It was/I felt it was all part of the process.
 
I would turn the music up and get to work. Late, late into the late night.
 
I’ve spoken a lot about this… About how filmmaking used to be so much more complicated. You had to buy (or rent) a camera. Buy the film. Shoot the film. Develop the film. Transfer the film. Edit the film. Sync the sound. All before you could ever even get close to a finished project. Now, all you need is your iPhone.
 
Music was the same. It took a lot of time effort and work to record a track. Now, it happens with a touch of button or a keyboard stroke.
 
I guess that’s all part and parcel to what I’m saying here. Art has changed. It has become at least different, if not easier.
 
Art is in the moment. And, trust me, I believe that is very Zen. But, think about it… A lot of the Content Creators out there all they do is grab their phone and talk some talk into it for a moment or more. Post it. And, the art, (their art), is given birth to. They have millions of followers.
 
And that’s the thing… Art changes. It changes with time. It changes with culture. It changes with technology. And, if you don’t move with the times—if you don’t change with the times—if you don’t accept the change that has taken place, what does that make you?
 
I don’t have an absolute answer for that. You may have the exact answer??? All I can say, if you don’t accept the new in the art for whatever the art may be, all you are doing is remaining stagnant, locked into a time gone past.
 
If you don’t let art be whatever the creator of that art sees their art to be, then are you evolved enough to truly understand art?