Maynard James Keenan on friction, tension & art

most people spend their entire lives
trying to avoid friction

somewhere along the way
I found it in myself

a desire

a calling

to embrace

friction
tension
transitions
changes

and to work with them

you don’t really need a
mathematician
or a psychic

to understand that

life is change

life is friction

for some people,
that’s kind of a
daunting realization

that gravity is going to win

gravity doesn’t cut anybody any slack

or you can just choose to work with gravity
work towards those changes
embrace the idea of friction

and work towards a solution
a life affirming resolution

for me
that’s kind of what life is

life is working towards those resolutions
it is working with the tension and the friction

because that’s where art is
that’s where the art occurs

the purist art
the best forms of art

are those ones
that capture that moment
that edge

a good example
of that friction
that tension:

cello

you take wood
you bend it into
impossible shapes
curves, angles

a place that it doesn’t want to be

not breaking

just on the edge

and then you string it

not to the point of breaking

just on the edge

and then you take that bow
and you place it across
those strings

And there it is

the release

the art

sonic joy
sonic sadness
sonic anger

all within that release

what is really appealing to me
is the people who actually can

capture those moments
capture those frictions
those changes

that is very inspiring to me

that is why I do what I do

to witness those things
in whatever form

it can be on a canvas
it can through a lens
it can be though cuisine
it can be through music
it can be through you