All That Glitters
The main subject of this drawing could just have easily appeared as an Asian, an old man with a potbelly, a chiseled Nordic type, a tattooed street vagrant with missing teeth, an African Bushman, an eighth grader or a dwarf. What I get a hard-on for is extremely fluid. In the course of a stroll to the Post Office I can usually come across ten or twenty males that seem perfect to me as I look at them. The boy is "blue" because he is unreal (and I thought that indicating a particular skin tone as being "ideal" would insult those of a different shade). Although I don't usually critique or analyze my artwork, I would suggest that the intention of this piece is that one may indeed focus on beauty but needn't be oblivious to everything else in the surrounding world or one might just miss some incredible sights and patterns. And it's pretty. As an illustrator I normally do more involved scenes as more information can be gleaned from a character interacting with the background and other people, so doing a single figure drawing is extremely rare for me. But the "Ideal Man" has no connections to anything (except perhaps some hyper-masculine accessories) or anyone. He exists solely to be studied and admired by the viewer. But sometimes what's beyond him may actually be more fascinating…

— Michael Kirwan

All That Glitters — 2004 — 16" x 20"