by Al Drinkle
Upon arriving at the shop on Saturday morning, my colleagues and I discovered that some fledgling local artist had chosen Metrovino’s loading dock as the canvas for their latest masterpiece. How lucky for us! Imagine, an unknown agent of obvious and immeasurable talent chose us as beneficiaries of their aesthetic brilliance!
The evocative piece masterfully embodies the quintessence of youth, fanning the flames of imminent social change while fervently communicating a brand of unhinged pathos that's only found in the precociously brilliant. Many people feel that today's youth are generally spiritless, expending what little passion they might possess on video games, TikTok and masturbation. How refreshing, then, that we can all witness this thoughtful and heroic artistic achievement of some gifted young person—one who’s already flirting with the zenith of talent—in the form of an altruistic contribution to Calgary's urban beauty.
Not only is the piece stunningly original, it’s also intellectually stimulating. It’s almost like the artist, undoubtedly burdened by their immense talent and Sisyphean responsibility to create, is fashioning an entirely new language to express their complex and inscrutable range of emotions. The fact that we can’t relate the symbols to an orthodox alphabet, and thereby interpret the message in a straightforward fashion, is stupefying and humbling... it’s a circuitous route to the collective soul of the universe, if you will. The insightful amongst us will detect artistic sagacity, even if it exceeds our cerebral capacities, and like hearing a heartrending refrain sung in a foreign language, the beauty herein is further enhanced by its Delphic nature.
I'm telling you, friends, there’s a genius in our midst. There's nothing to be done but to sit back and be awed by the work of this unchallenged virtuoso of aesthetic philanthropy.
