Today’s Pick of the Litter: The Circle of Freaks — Ahem, Life

This blog is predominantly geared toward appreciating artists who are not well-known but whose works are worth knowing well. These crafty folks produce pieces that trigger a response from the viewer as automatic as a knee jerk.  That being said, let’s examine  Today’s Pick of the Litter:

 David Czupryna
In the Shadow of the Beast, oil, 60 x 40 inches

(From the New York Acamedy of Art Web site)

Who wouldn’t want to paint as well as Czupryna? And the subject matter alone: love it! “Awesome” may be a trite term for my generation, but this piece is honestly worthy of awe. Surreal as anything Dali or Matisse could conjure up, In the Shadow of the Beast uses light as Rembrant taught us to: full blast from one direction, like a spotlight, adding drama and emphasis to the scene. 

This piece is literally bright but the theme is dark: gotta love that kind of ironic contrast. And the work looks like The Lion King meets a radioactive Armageddon. Come on, the tree looks ridiculously similar to the one Simba sought refuge in during the stampede scene, and that animal in the bottom right must remind you of Pumba the warthog!

The animals in this piece are . . . beyond words. There are things that look like chocolate Easter bunnies, the red-butted monkey from a Disney film based on Hamlet (that would be The Lion King, again), platypuses, armadillos, pigs, foxes, birds and dinosaurs. Now that would be a zoo I’d go to.

As odd and smart-aleckly as I sound after saying all this, I must stress that I do, indeed, believe this is a brilliant piece of work because it is capable of making me recall all these memories and attached emotions while making me form strange connections. 

 So click the link and form your own opinion, already!

http://www.nyaa.edu/nyaa/dp_2008/czupryna.html

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~ by kt20 on February 23, 2009.