Wow
Somehow every time I finish a chapter of this I'm left with a knot of anxiety in my stomach even tho I don't live in this world.
That feeling of presenting in a class of young geniuses, and coming up against people with that kind of BAM impact, it's a lot. And it's...idk it's really something you only encounter as a youth too tbh. Once people are older and more settled into their roles and careers they're generally very chill and don't have this need to make a statement about their work because they've already proven themselves.
Sjkslwos honestly the route he's picked out so far, or maybe the lack of route is terrifying too. A fine artist has to think not just about skill, but also themes and ideas and style, and it's so very very wrapped up in their identity. For some of the other kids who have been doing this for a long time, expression was never the problem, it was only about accumulating enough skill to execute it. If he had gone into something more like illustration or animation, something industry based, that's all service type art and you only need to focus on execution to make it.
Fine art is ridiculously hard.