BeefCake by CheeseCake Artist's Statement

This on-going project, called the MASCULINE series, powerfully portrays men in sexually charged mindscapes - showing their strength, passions and vulnerabilities. I am not a portraitist but rather a storyteller. You're looking at a sentence or few phrases from a larger epic.

In ikebana and bonsai, flowers and plants are taken from their organic settings and sculpted by the artists, who over lay upon them stylized, and often culturally dictated, reinterpretations of nature. In these arts, the subject is often not the raw material but what is visually absent but implied - the forces of wind, water and time.

Look at these images for the invisible forces that shape the limbs and body… the forces stemming from within their hearts and minds, the forces of the culture around them, and most importantly, the forces of desire.

I revel in taking the visual language of the commodified and sexualized body to create something new, which stirs reactions deep in the gut.

Enjoy,

Midori