The Kick Boxer

Thank you Skylar....

You're welcome, Sylvia!!

Oh gawd! Who's a pretty boy, then...? Now, more seriously: this is interesting. This is a celebration of strength, a portrait of musculature. It could be said to be exploitative (sorry, Skylar, but read on...) but it really isn't. There is a subtle dividing line: Michael Hanrahan paints large-breasted women in his celebration of womanhood and motherhood; you paint muscular young men in your celebration of masculinity. I find no problem with either. The subject is deeper than voyeurism -but I recognize salivatory voyeurism, however brilliantly painted, when I see it. There is so clear a difference as to be obvious to anyone who chooses to really look: and perhaps more of us should. To celebrate the human form - male or female - is one thing; to ogle it (I'm using a euphemism here, but some will know what I mean) is something else again. I believe that to display human form as a study in curves, lines, a celebration of the form, is admirable. Why not revel in its complexities, curves, and forms? To exaggerate it, to exploit it for voyeuristic purposes, to underline the predatory male gaze, on the other hand, is exploitation; and tends towards the grotesque. It's the difference between life studies, and Razzle magazine (or, for those with long memories in a particular genre, HIM and Zipper magazines: neither of which kidded themselves that they were art: they may have been many things, but weren't hypocritical). Had this argument not cropped up, I wouldn't have imposed my opinions on your posting: which is a finely sculpted piece of work, if, sadly, several thousand miles away from my own unlovely physique. Now,don't tell me it's yours, or I shall be jealous.

A lot of muscle.

Well said Robert!

A modern day Adonis Skylar! So handsome…..

Great work Skylar. Great skin tones and musculature.

That's a determined young man, brilliant Skylar.