Latissimus Dorsi – Also known as your “lats,” this muscle group is located in your back and is engaged as you reach your arms overhead. Serratus Anterior – This is a muscle located on the sides of your ribs and is engaged as you reach your arms out to the side. Deltoids – Your deltoid muscles will be used as you lift your arms to the side. Pectorals – Your chest muscles are engaged throughout the Icarus pose.
With different paintings, prints, and sculptures I will try to cover as many styles of art that we went over in class that I can using the mythological character, Icarus. The Icarus myth warns us of the dangers of power, but unfortunately provides no solution to our dilemma. Many men are trapped in adolescence, frustrated by fantasies of unmodulated and unbounded power, or constricted in their experience of what it means to be a man.
Addictions allow people to push against their experience of reality; substance abuse appears to be freeing at first, but ultimately enslaves the spirit. In a similar manner, perfectionism can be seen as pressing against human limits, procrastination as pressing against time limits, and compulsive debt as pressing against financial limits. Competition may be derived from seeking ones place within a hierarchy, whether in sports or on the corporate ladder. Every social niche provides both a channel for expressing power and limits of that power. In order to learn how to use power and not be destructive to himself or others, a young man must have the capacity and resources to both channel and contain power. In the myth, Daedalus provided encouragement but limited his advice to cognitive information about using his newfound power .
Colorized illustration depicts the Ancient Greek mythological figure of Icarus as he falls, his waxen wings having melted in the suns heat, 1588. While growing up, a young man internalizes the parent-child relationships within the music of john adams reflects the influence of which he was raised. He will relate to the childlike parts of himself and others using his experience. He will repeat abuse and neglectful use of power in his relationship with himself and others is that is what he has known.
In relationships, such as a man might believe his only power is to veto, to withhold, to withdraw, and to abandon. Our legal system provides real physical limits for people who have not internalized social boundaries. But there are a host of subtle, more socially acceptable limits against which many men press their search for containment.
Drunk with his newfound power, he soared higher in the sky, ignoring his father’s warning. He peered down at the ocean and saw a small cluster of feathers floating on the water. Icarus had soared towards the sun, his wax melted and he fell to his death.