He talks about art

"You must be Mrs. Fellers." Rollo walked right up to the woman and stuck out his hand.

"And you are?"

"I'm Rollo. I'm one of the artists whose works are featured in this month's exhibition."

"Oh. Congratulations."

Matt wasn't sure but Mrs. Fellers sounded less than overwhelmed.

"I wanted to get your advice on something. Do you have a minute?"

"I'm quite busy with--"

"It will only take a minute." Without waiting for a response, Rollo pushed on. "I'm thinking about taking a different direction in my art. Specifically, I've been looking at video. There's a lot that you can do with video that you can't do with static art. Obviously part of it involves the dynamic nature of change over time that's intrinsic to the medium. But I think there's also the social commentary, don't you? Video is how contemporary artistic communications takes place. Not that I don't love paint but really--"

"But video is crass."

Rollo laughed. "That's what people said about oil paints a century ago. It's the new medium so it's different. The thing is, those who latch on early are seen as visionaries."

"Want to know something, Rollo?" She smirked. "Rollo, really? What kind of a name is that? Anyway, I don't give a shit what kind of art you do. Painting, video, sculpture, it's all a waste of time. Real men go out there and make money, create companies, change the world. Effete liberal artists just want to suck at the public trough."

"But... but you're here at a contemporary art function."

"I'm here because important people are here. You're just not one of them. Now if we're quite finished..." She left Rollo gaping and moved on to a middle-aged man who looked like he cared about art almost as much as she did and Rollo stumbled back to Matt.

"You heard."

"I heard."

"That's a tough nut to crack."

"Tell me about it."

"I don't think the porn is art angle is going to work."

"Yeah, I sort of picked up on that. I appreciate the try, though. Those were some good lines about video being where contemporary artistic expression is headed."

"Yeah, I pretty much convinced myself. Want to get drunk and talk about how I can get into the video business?"

It was tempting. Matt doubted he'd have many chances to get drunk and talk about art once he was locked up in the federal pen... he was pretty sure they wouldn't be sending him to any of those country club prisons he'd read about. And he was even more sure the current President wasn't going to grant him a pardon. Still, was he really ready to give up?"

"If you're thinking you can be more persuasive than me," Rollo said, "have at it. But I don't think anyone is going to persuade her of anything. She's got her mind made up."