Adapt

Those who know nothing of culture create certain self-evident conditions.

Brute ignorance and dead-end apathy are not the artist's concerns, but they must be overcome nonetheless.

Undetermined

Music is everywhere.

Yet musical culture, with its myriad facets, has vanished, absorbed into a single, all-encompassing media perspective.  The term "rock-star" is now used as an adjective that has nothing to do with music; living examples number fewer than a dozen, and less than a handful of these are genuine, consequential artists. The dead bury the dead.

Ultimately, the artist must shoulder the burden of the real, wherever it leads.

Some Confusion

The obscure may ultimately be revealing.

Rightly understood, the mind and individual range of perception are sources and origins of creative power. But judgments of this nature cannot account for all forces in play, nor can the commonplace simply be subdued and brought to bear upon expression without depth of understanding.

Many things are ultimately beyond the scope of mere intellect, and there are many people who are highly, yet poorly, educated.

If It Is Possible

Art requires thought.

Initial impression communicates very little; superficial responses communicate even less. Ignorance of aesthetic principles and purposes are commonplace, so to accomplish anything is to achieve much.

But art does, in fact, communicate far more than merely that which is already known.

Think, Again

The artist says, I will make you see.  The composer thinks, I will make you listen, and hear.

One creates the future by setting aside both preconceptions and personal dogmas.  It cannot be otherwise, and it is an individual act, not a matter of social conformity.

This is the meaning of the modern, not the destruction of Time Past, but the opening of the mind to Time Future.

Find the Key

Every element of a work must contribute to total effect.

This is true of art, and life as well. Cause yields effect, and may be directed. Nothing is "random".

Direct Experience

Connectivity is not creativity. Not by a long shot.

Effortlessness renders expression dubious, spotlighting its impermanence and eviscerating its power.

If my concepts are not given due consideration, if my music is not in your ears, I accomplish nothing, as far as "connectivity" and other such claptrap goes.

And far more than wasted effort is in progress; here, now, and at all times, one must move forward.

Promoveo, promovi, promotum.