digital art: portrait of the artist as a young man / living on the edge

RTomens, 1973/2017

portrait of the artist as a young man.,.,.,.,

I'm outside Carluccios on Paddington Street watching a man edge his way along a ledge one storey up, cleaning each window as he goes - that's the spirit, no helmet or safety helmet! you can see that as analogous or not, I don't care - BUT - there are those who advocate life on the edge, an admirable notion if you have the nerve although I don't - yes, I've read On The Road but never felt inclined to set out in search of adventure (dope & kicks!). I did, however, once date a girl who lived a few miles away and being the sticks there was no public transport so I'd hitchhike both ways & let me tell you a cow coughing on the other side of the hedge at night is enough to make anyone jump, even Jack Kerouac, who would no doubt write a haiku about it the next day..........

.............art on the edge: those who mutilate themselves...or...endanger their lives in other ways as Performance, are one thing, otherwise, what do the artist have to lose? If you're a Big Name, you might put on a show that gets panned but the bank balance softens the blow, I'm sure, Damien. for us little unknowns there's nothing to lose, not even our chains since we're not bound to create anything >

-- context--

the art I make isn't exactly 'edgy' 

but it's probably beyond those

who hold firm beliefs about

WHAT ART SHOULD LOOK LIKE

naturally

so in some small way am I walking the ledge? I've no intention of pretending as much, least of all to you. My ledge is a construct (if i decide, for a while, that it exists) - I cannot 'fall'. I can 'fail' on my own terms (Ok and those of critical viewers) but so what? the advantage of being a big microbe in a little pond of my own imagination is that very few people will see my 'failures' or, come to that, my 'successes'. 

that's all for today. thank you for looking in at this gallery without walls.