The Annointed Fig

Another day, another positive review.  Like a kinder, gentler American Idol Season 8 Simon, I seem to be losing my touch, but oh well…

Behold Dmitry Maximov, and no, I have NOT been retained to sing any paens in the man’s name.  It’s just that this Russian-born artist seems to exist in a world of his own.  And who among us doesn’t love a peepshow?

A passing glance at his works, and you can tell that they are at once as human — and humane — as you or ANYONE peeking in from the outside, yet altogether surreal.  That they are fashioning a land that is not so much a caricature of ours, but, perhaps, its shadow, a whisper of a possibility of what we could have been.  And, thankfully, are not.  More humane, perhaps, more painfully lonely, more different from one another in a way, we, who have our race around us, our country, our city, our family, our very culture, should ever fear to be.

But we can still speculate, and marvel, and worry — and drink it all in like the best, though none too sweet, champagne.

The artworks seem to have no names that I could find, so, I will just say that this one, over here, is the one that struck me the most.  This strange, gingerbread man critter is taking the time to appreciate the dawn of a new day.  Shouldn’t we?

Click here to visit Dmitriy Maximov’s gallery. And here are a few more of my favorites:

• A Sound Solution to an Age Old Problem There's a funny thing about old people - eventually we all turn into them. As our tolerance for loud music gets lower and our pants higher, we start judging those less gnarled and crusty than ourselves with a sort of snobbish disdain. While some might age gracefully, attaining a zen-like......
• "They called me an imbecile". They were right! Who doesn't know a tale of a boy crying wolf? [/caption] It's scary, pithy, seemingly transcends cultures -- and at our mother's knee, teaches us honesty, forethought, and bewaring of society's patience with even the youngest of us being so spectacularly short, a child is forced to spend the night......
• To Kill or Not to Kill -- Pigs? India allows cows to roam free.  Ancient Egyptians buried dishes, crocodiles, and wives to ease the passing of a head of house.  And Jews and Muslims have tasty imaginative diets.  The problem for a dedicated pork cutlets aficionado like myself, these diets very much do NOT include anything originating in......
• Confessions of an Unrepentant Cannibal When a doctor makes a mistake and cuts off the wrong testicle -- that's social injustice. When a bank employee recommends postponing payments on the mortgage in an enviably good standing so that you could take advantage of the government bailout and refinance -- and then, repossessing your home --......
• It's my Party... I am Lisa, this here blog's writer, and I am a foodie. There, I said it, and no, I am not feeling relieved.  I love food. I cook, I like dining out, I like giving everything a fair chance (which, however, emphatically does not extend to vanilla or whatever-flavored......

• Wasted Time On the subject of time and the perceived passing of a life, all that constitutes our life endures in memory. By memory, I don’t mean human organic memory, but energy function based on memory. Functions, your actions, leave a causal imprint of "memory" on reality even if people can’t trace......
• How to Attract Prosperity by Orison Swett Marden Nothing can attract prosperity but that which has an affinity for it, the prosperous thought, the prosperous conviction, the prosperity faith, the prosperity ambition.  We must conquer inward poverty before we can conquer outward poverty.  True prosperity is the inward consciousness of spiritual opulence, wholeness, completeness.   -  Orison Sweet......
• What Makes Coin and Currency More Valuable? There are a lot of people who think that they have a very valuable collection only to find out that the collection is not worth much at all. This can come to a shock to many people when they end up getting their coin and currency collection graded. The problem......
• I'm a Believer Re-Write (Human Rights) By DonJuan Writer I thought rights were just the stuff of fairy tails, Meant for war torn souls but not for me, I was such a cynic, That's the way it seems, Violations haunted all my dreams But the human race, Can be a believer, It has a place, I've no doubt in......
• Dragon Knowledge Are dragons an entity akin to angels in the metaphysical world or a species of angel? They are not angels, but not beneath angels. In the beliefs that deal with dragons, there was always a path to meeting with dragons, and it was always seen as intense, challenging, dangerous, because......