artistry

     "And knowing, too, that this sort of artistry could not endure past the shaping moment, could only be spoken of after by those who recalled, or misrecalled, who had seen and half seen and not seen at all, distorted by memory and desire and ignorance, the achievement of it written as if on water or sand.
     "It mattered, terribly, and just now it didn't matter at all. Or could the fragility, the defining impermanence actually intensify the glory?" - Lord of Emperors by Guy Gavriel Kay

I like this commentary on the ephemeral artistry of performance.