I’m scanning my loop library, tasting the guitar tracks in B flat.
Waiting for the right rhythm pattern. The backbone one. The groove that explains itself.
Otis hops onto the desk and steps directly on the keyboard.
“You’re trying to land the plane before it’s even airborne,” Otis says.
“It needs to clarify the track.”
“No,” he says. “You’re trying to be safe.”
I swivel toward him. “Great art needs to be understood. It needs to say something. Mean something”
“Great art needs to be free. Understanding is optional.” Otis flicks his tail. “You’re telling me you understand Bosch?”
“So confusion gets dressed up as depth now?”
“Wrong,” he says. “It’s permission to be honest.”
He yawns. “Art isn’t a closing statement; it’s an open tab. People click it for different reasons.”
“Where is the responsibility in all this freedom?”
“In saying what’s true,” he says. “Even if it costs you control.”
He wrinkles his nose and scampers away, annoyed. “You’ve ignored the litter box. I admire the commitment to squalor.”
Can We Help You?
Are you creating to control the meaning, or to tell the truth?
Art never lands the same way twice. That’s the risk. It is the beauty of putting something honest into the world.
Share this with someone wrestling with their own creative process, comment with your take on what art is supposed to do, and subscribe if you want more straight talk from Otis and Mack-n-Cheeze Music.
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