Wave 4

They talk about the Edge: being at the edge of the market, building up a loyal following, never making Average for the masses.

But... people have to eat. people have to pay rent. so they dumb it down; they sand off the Edge.
 
I am afraid of living there.
 
I want to know how to make my works as beautiful and relatable and archival as possible, to use good materials that won’t degrade.
 
But then — here’s the scary part — will that keep me from expressing art worth expressing?
 
My self portrait from high school is cheap and crumbly and poorly executed — it has fallen apart, doesn’t look the same, will only get worse. But it is me. It expresses Teenaged Bethany better than anything else ever could. And i wasn’t thinking about the materials then. I was just showing me.
 
I remember my art teacher pulling a chair right up to it. He sat there for a long time.
 
That memory will not even last as long as I do, likely; but that memory is part of my fuel for now.
 
I hope I make something good.
I really, really do.