dinner parties are artworks

That is, one of the things that I do is throw dinner parties. They are the sort of art that I engage in; it's an art form that has many elements. First, of course, there is the preparation of food - an art in itself. Beyond the cookery, though, you need to put together a menu - a set of dishes that complement one another (and which will satisfy the needs of the guests). There is also the presentation - the way the food is served, the room it is served in, and so forth. This is fairly important, but I don't do a very good job at this part. But dinner parties are not just installations of food on plates in rooms. They are also collaborative performance art. The artwork is the whole experience, and this involves devising an appropriate guest list - people who will mix well together, and provide interesting conversation (or other things, depending on the aim of your dinner party). Beyond selecting guests, and providing an appropriate setting (for example, the sort and volume of music that is present will have tremendous effect), however, there is not much the host can do once the party is going. Sure, they have certain abilities, but the party - the artwork - is well beyond their control once the guest arrives (in a way that the food, generally, is not). What is particularly nice is that dinner parties are such transient works. The artwork is a collection of experiences (the experiences of all the guests), and each one of these is gone as soon as it happens, receding into memory. You can't experience a dinner party, at least not fully, without actually being a guest there - in other words, the art is self-contained; it appreciates itself, and can't really be transmitted beyond that. And once it's done, it's done, over.

A dinner party is a thing of transient beauty - it epitomizes (or at least exemplifies) the point that we really can't hang on to everything, that this is a fleeting world, often beyond our control, and that we have to make the best of each moment as it is, and then move on.