Hyperbolic Masculinity

Power Thumb

We have seen strides in the understanding of gender roles in the past 20 years that have radically redefined how we perceive maleness, femaleness, and the entirety of the gender spectrum.  Indeed, this alteration of understanding has left many confused as to the place of the genders in modern society.
Unless you happen to possess the mountainous confidence of Chuck Norris.
Chuck Norris represents the ideological Man.  Physical prowess manifest.  Compassionate wisdom incarnate.  Norris transcends our understanding - not of gender - but of what it means to be human.

Oddly, the gentlest and deftest of his hands.

 Indeed, Immanuel Kant once postulated that one could only exist entirely in the realm of the living or the realm of the animated.*  Norris, however, has robbed us of that certainty.  Capable of existing in multiple forms simultaneously, we are left with an omnipotent, omnipresent god figure in human form.
Some hypothesize that masculinity is predicated on an intrinsic quest for the position of the Alpha.  In our escapist world of alternate realities, many men have fled the world of corporeal competition for a surrogate existence.  The world of MMO gaming has provided competition for those who have opted out of the world resplendent in the mastery of Norris.
But they cannot escape.
No one can.

I mean, seriously?  A snow tiger?

*Nope

Roar, My Kittens.

My great concern is not whether you have failed, but whether you are content with your failure.Abe Lincoln

Universal.  Transcendent.  Ambition and the image of a powerful self is often brought down by the reality of our world.  The desire to - as the artist notes - "Roar like lion" - a verse resplendent in poetic merit - is one which every human feel.  We are expressionistic species and our roars seek to define and affirm our very existence.

Yet the laughter follows.  Inevitably, society tears down that which seeks to be different than it's preordained path.  And so this kitten, a vehicle chosen by the artist to emphasize the feeling of diminished stature and patronized ambition brought on by such defeat, represents the broken feeling and ennui which comes when dreams are burnt like effigies to the throne of conformity.

Roar, my kittens.  Roar.

Those of Slovenly Gods

Sir Daniel's Note:
Dearest reader,
I do hope my man-servant reached you with the gold-leaf apology missives I sent to each and every one of you.  If he did not, simply contact me via raven.  I shall have him flogged forthwith.
I do apologize for my recent tardiness.  I know you as connoisseurs, ladies and gentlemen of refined tastes and exquisite senses of decor and decorum and how your sensitive souls must have languished in my absence.
Fret no more.  I encourage you to share and expand this circle of arteests and lovers of high culture, for now we shall new reviews every Monday Wednesday and Friday without fail.
I will stake my own life - using my man-servant as a proxy - on it.
Sir Daniel Zubrzycki esquire PhD, MD, ADD, etc, etc, titles, titles.

And ye,  the Bro did sayeth, "take this hot dog, bro for I am stuffed, and feel not like moving."

Truly original pieces appear from the veil infrequently, their place in the conglomerated soul of art forever sealed simply in their audacity.  Such is the fate of this piece: Slovenly Gods.
With an ethereal quality, lending a sense of other-worldly serenity, this piece speaks a crystalline message of spiritual connection and the human thirst to know more*.
Utilizing long straight lines established by the divine human form on the left, the artist contrasts that image immediately with piles of clothing.  The God-figure to the left, resplendent and beneficent, proffers manna to the mortal.
The long flowing mane of the figure to the right and robust fullness establish it as the god-figure.  It's offering of food to the human first establishes the human as the chosen of men and reinforces the juxtaposition of their figures.  The man - muscled and lean - strives towards perfections which may never bother then god-figure.
The offering: a Hot dog.  The timeless symbol of consummate love and eternal salvation which harks back in hallowed antiquity as far back as the Sumerian empire.**
Slovenly Gods is a perennial piece, timeless in form and function.  Having not drawn on any previous works for any form of inspiration, satirical or otherwise, it solidifies it's place in art's history for originality and cultural commentary.
*"And for some beer or something, what did you put on that thing?"
** Horace recalls an account of Sumerian Hot dogs "Dulce et decorum est edere canem fervens"