work the nerve

The most demanding part of living a lifetime as an artist is the strict discipline of forcing oneself to work steadfastly along the nerve of one's most intimate sensitivity.

-- Anne Truitt, Sculptor

Makes me think, oddly enough, of stand-up comics - the bravest of performing artists. Of Margaret Cho returning from network hell to tell the story. Sia Amma, mining the laughter from her clitoridectomy. Chris Rock voicing every taboo of interracial sex.