Bittersweet Escape by Kelly Bridegum, editor
May 9th, 2008 by Editor
Six hundred and seventeen days I have been editor of the Brushfire. I have read and looked through over two thousand submissions, eight hundred and thirteen in this semester alone. I have spent two thousand nine hundred and forty seven hours coaxing and kindling this fire. And it is withthis edition I bid it farewell, confident you have the fuel to keep it burning. This parting is bittersweet as is this volume. It is filled with the magic and beautyof everyday life and the horror of our worst fears and most common nightmares.
From images of pure suspense to tales of timid flirting we are reminded that nightmares come suddenly, dreams are always drifting nearby, and that nothing is ever exactly as it may seem. Our daily lives are reflected in both our dreams and our nightmares, our escapes and our abstractions. These dreams, nightmares, escapes and abstractions are our most familiar and most comfortable places. It is in them that we have the strength, creativity and ability to transform our worlds, find release and rekindle inspiration.
On the pages that follow you will be offered a bittersweet escape—glowing in the noonday sun and sweeping into midnight shadows. Each individual piece will change your course with subtle differences and patient irony. These artists will challenge your notions of society, power, death and beauty. They will tempt you with their elusive perfection and captivate you with their grotesque illusions. I hope you find retreat in the sublime, solace in the sorrow, hope in the whimsical, and freedom in the abstraction.
Let yourself get lost in words and find yourself in a photograph. Let the prose and the paintings speak to you and entangle you with their autobiographical and fictional fantasies and fates. Find something to love and treasure the journey. Escape with us and let your dreams and nightmares run free. Let us entertain, intrigue, confuse and satisfiy your creative craving. And let go of everything you know and everything you think you know and give these artists and writers a chance to transform your world into something intangible and magical that can only be found staring at a painting or humming through a lyrical verse.
As editor, I have a great degree of fondness for this publication and hold the artists and writers that walk amoung us at this University in great esteem. For without these artists, these writers, these scholars, there would be no call, no need for something completely shrouded in creativity and as priceless and wonderful as the Brushfire. In the words of Nnamdi Azikiwe, “Originality is the essenceof true scholarship. Creativity is the soul of the true scholar.” And the Brushfire is one of the only truly creative, unique and scholarly student publications that we have.
As I ferry this last issue filled with the love, hate, hurt and confusion expressed by these artists I must thank you for allowing me to be the messenger that delivers the artistic accomplishments of so many individuals in our community. I hope that my editorship and the Brushfire has fostered creativity in our community and inspired you. you for picking up this copy today and being part of the ongoing growth and success of the Brushfire. Enjoy this issue and remember that the Brushfire will continue to burn, long past the last time you read it, long past the last memory it made for you. As long as there are scholars, the Brushfire will burn.•
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