John Mayer will go down in history as one of the 21st century’s greatest musicians and songwriters.

That’s a bold statement, I know.

Admittedly, his “hits” of the last two decades are good, but not remotely his best work. There is a certain formula and type of pop song that succeeds with the masses and he has proven to be able to do that thig well. But these arent the pieces of artwork that will stand the test of time and have future generations looking back fondly saying “that guy…”. As with so many artists, it is the other ten or so tracks on each album that never reach the airwaves that are the true representation of the artist’s craft. Unbound by the expectations of record labels, having entrusted the task of checking the pop-music-radio boxes to the one or two hits of the album, they are blank canvases on which the artist can truly be himself.

This is where John shines.

“When songwriting,” John explains “Every song needs to have a moment. A little something that………[ Jack: I can’t frikkin find the interview. I’ll scour the webs for it and get back to you]”. There it is. The secret for all the world to hear.

Mayer has always seemed more than eager to share every bit of his creative process (and the world is better for it). But in an interview with_______________________ he mentions something that has changed me forever as a visual artist. He calls it “the moment”.

“When songwriting,” John explains “Every song needs to have a moment. A little something that………[ Jack: I can’t frikkin find the interview. I’ll scour the webs for it and get back to you]”. There it is. The secret for all the world to hear.

When I go back and listen, I can find “the moment” in every one of the songs of his last half-dozen studio records. A vocal run on this word, the swell of strings during this chorus, this unexpected lyric. They’re the elements that firmly embed a piece of art into my long-term memory. Moments where I feel the artist has done a little something just for me. A wink, a nod, “you found it” it says, “I put that there for you”.

Interestingly, I imagine “the moment” is not universal for everyone. Almost certainly, someone is profoundly impacted by things far more subtle. That is the beauty and the mystery of art.

I’ve tried my hand at music and I’ve proven to be mediocre at best, but where I’ve truly found my calling and, really what I’ve been my entire life, is a visual artist. It is deep in my bones. It is intrinsically part of who I am.

So with this perspective, I heard these words, this secret spoken aloud by Mayer and realized that this idea transcends music. This is about art, broadly speaking- sculpture, painting, ceramics, illustration, cinematography, graphic design… you name it and this is true. What makes a piece move from “that’s nice” to “I will never forget this” is a moment.

For me there are notable moments throughout the broad spectrum of the arts. Pluto’s hand on the thigh of Persephone in Bernini’s masterpiece the Abduction of Persephone. The statuesque boy with the ring in Mucha’s The Introduction of the Slavonic Liturgy. The white of the catch against the imminenet storm in Winslow Homer’s The fog Warning. The interplay of composition and color is just about every frame of Kubrik’s 2001 a Space Odyssey. Even the french horn counter-melody here will never cease to give me goosebumps. I could go on for days about the (sometimes indescribable) moments that move a made-thing from good to unforgettable.