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:

• How to Get a Louse Out of Your Hair? See, I have this friend... Boy, after "it was a dark and stormy night", this has got to be the most overused line on the planet.  And nonetheless, there ARE stormy nights -- and there actually ARE genuine friends with genuine problems. [/caption] Like my friend, for instance, that I......
• 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......
• The Pit Ball Goes to the Dogs as Vicktory Emerges Victorious [/caption] I wrote about The Great Pit Ball before -- when it was just a glimmer in its host's eye. A very defined kind of glimmer, true, but when we talked, everything for the grand event was only just coming together. Today, I spoke to Mr. Bond again, with The......
• "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......
• Flying the Unfriendly Skies I remember 9/11. [/caption] I was ready to step out to go to school / work -- I was in grad school, and it was my first semester as a TA.  Insert me all being puffed up and leave it at that. But my inner glow dimmed that day.  The......

• Boredom Lately I am dealing with a severe case of ennui. Existential boredom. How can that be? So much knowledge to learn? The disciplines of the mind reduce to exercising human perception. This is starkly limited and easily exhausted. From basic human premises of philosophy and science you can extrapolate any......
• Must be nice to turn down $1 billion This left me shaking my head.  Management at Facebook.com turned down a cool one-billion-ish buyout.Jimmy Napier must be shaking his head, too.  He was known as saying "When someone puts a million dollars in your hand, close your hand."Well, if Yahoo! wants to put a billion dollars in your hand,......
• Breast Cancer Risk Factors for Women There are a number of ailments that women are actually at risk for developing without actually realizing it. For example, breast cancer risk factors for women are much more significant than they come to realize in many situations. Of all the types of cancer that you can get, breast cancer......
• 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......
• What is Gratitude? I think the idea of gratitude is for the most part misunderstood. Seen as a humiliation often, but if you think about it there is nothing more ennobling. When you are in the experience of gratitude, you are in peace. You are in the present. When you cannot rest in......