MAYBE TASTE IS JUST ATTENTION PRACTICED FOR LONG ENOUGH.

Taste is often presented as a verdict. I am more interested in the moment before the verdict, when someone notices the difference between two blues, two ways of setting a table, two buildings that use the same material without saying the same thing.

“The work is to stay near the things that make you curious.”

Attention practiced for long enough begins to look like instinct. The person who has looked at clothes carefully sees proportion before price. The person who has watched films listens to the room behind the dialogue. None of this makes the observer better. It makes the world more detailed.

The best taste I know is curious and revisable. It can say, I thought I disliked this, and mean it. It leaves room for the object and the person looking to change.