Specificity in art makes the art--worth doing, worth receiving. the reaction not in general but in real time played out in your soul. the painting not in general but of the fingernails, the steam, the food you know. what I am not giving you now is specificity. but you know the exact lift of the eyebrow, the tone of voice, the way a baby knows a parent's. The exactness of it, the ruffage, the what's left-behind, the imprecision. it's what makes art worth giving. would I give art to an abstract person? I could. How much more fun to give a piece to someone that they specifically know, can see, know the size and the shape and the shadows that are it, know the lilt of tongue, the specific ache of the knee, the pitter, pattering precision of it. that is shaped, as near I can shape it, toward them, which is still a mottled hunk of clay with lumps and fingernail grooves running into it, but isn't that the best we can give someone else, anyway?
