 |
SUPER HEROES AWARD WINNERS |
|
2
horns to attack evil, |
|
Runners-up
Acrylic 36in x 48 I have a passionate admiration for the sculptures of Greek and Roman gods and heroes from antiquity. These perfected beings are the “Super-Heroes” of my pantheon of artistic masterpieces. My paintings are, in part, homage to these breathtakingly beautiful creations. Even in their most fragmented condition these statues are astonishing life-like. Fragmented bodies often frustrate exact identification of the original persona and, at the same time, invite imaginary completion by the individual viewer. I am fascinated with the present-day worship of the human body wherein athletes attempt to sculpt living flesh to match, and even best, the perfection of these classical stone gods. Some devotees of this cult go so far as to utilize steroids in order to supersede these inspiring deities, and risk disfiguring consequences. This risk exposes a fundamental perversion of the aincient Greek concept of physical perfection as a mirror of spiritual perfection.
Acrylic on rough board, mixed media 58 x 30 |
|
Super Artists
Mixed media on wood 15 x 22
Where are our Heroes? Do and did they ever exist, and if so how can they motionlessly exist in times of societal blindness? Living now in what is and will be the recovery period for the nameless victims of Hurricane Katrina, we are forced to ask the ever present question of what went wrong. We frequently and uncertainly question ourselves about the kinds of lives we lead, the policies that our government pursues in our name and the people who represent and create our nation’s constructs and false sense of empowerment. The elected heroes of our country single-mindedly disregarded their social and moral responsibilities to control and assist an ever present catastrophic and cultural changing phenomenon. Overall this piece relates to the hopelessness for change in a society that is reliant on its unrecognized heroes. These unrecognized heroes are the many citizens who volunteered their lives, emotions and time to answer an ever present and desperate cry for recognition and aid.
It's not the american military that I find patriotic and heroic, it's not the idea of patriotism either. I'm not a patriot. What I find heroic is the way men and women of the military can put themselves in danger, and die for a cause that they consider important. The women that come home to find a military messenger ready to hand her a letter and a medal with a distant look in his eye. How can mothers deal with that? To me it's just a government sponsored abortion. These women feel the weight of this and they hold up as best they can. Heroism in tragedy and vice versa. Their sons and daughters are torn straight from the womb by the american ideals that took them away from home in the first place.
People need to be saved on occasion. It is seen in several hero myths that the individual saved, though weaker than the hero, has a moral persuasion that causes sympathy in the reader. It is presumed that a moral strictness fosters innocence worthy of salvation. I desire an angel, a hero, who is willing to save me when I am not worthy of being saved. My hero takes the form of a conflicted angel resorting to violence to gain his halo. The stereotypes of heroism are altered as the hero struggles against his inherent nature, his goodness, in order to save the self-destructive, lost individual. The story presents a conflicted warrior earning his salvation by saving another conflicted soul. The idea that impure souls understand sympathy more deeply becomes paramount to the possibility of salvation. Purity becomes secondary to purpose.
|
HOME - SCOTT'S
PICKS - SUPER HEROES
WINNERS
416
WEST GALLERY AND PRINT CENTER - BACK
TO ABOUT ON MAIN OFF CENTER