fantasy: wah muh gatekeeping get with the times

reality: a small group of 65+ year olds who would beat you with a ruler for doing a single thing in even a slightly untraditional fashion are the only thing keeping multiple artistic fields from collapsing entirely forever https://twitter.com/bbettie_cosplay/status/1329489144154767360

was at an atelier once (fancy classical art spot) that was next level. normal soccer moms breaking out legit still life oil paintings, very impressive. the guy running it died. then [one guy] carried it + when he left it became trash in a few weeks. its a maddeningly thin thread.

to get slightly more specific as its an interesting thing to zoom in on, in my case it was the lighting. the whole classical drawing process + this particular mode of instruction relied on shadow shapes (ie the shapes of shadows). so this guy changed the lighting + it fell apart

thats why in most art history u can see the chain from person to person, or theyre all in the same place. the conditions have to be perfect to “pass the torch” and keep it lit, tbh u could probably kidnap between 1-350 people and sabotage classical western oil painting forever

sometimes i think about this for other disciplines. like i posted a mandolin earlier, theyre easy to get, but how many people [really] know everything there is to know about making a great mandolin on earth right now? like.. 10? gotta be less than 100. insane to consider really

i think apart from the direct transfer of knowledge, this kind of “encountering a master of a craft + obtaining his mindset” played a role in shaping zen in japan. theres a mystical element to this transfer, its a lineage, a lot of the zen guys were artisans, kind of interesting