The King

Based on the tale "King Thrushbeard" [German: König Drosselbart] from Grimms‘ Children‘s and Household Tales: A princess ridicules suitors, prompting her father to wed her to a minstrel, who later turns out to be King Thrushbeard. Disguising himself and orchestrating circumstances to publicly humiliate the princess seems excessive and vindictive. His deliberate emphasis on her shortcomings is a form of emotional manipulation, bordering on cruelty. By subjecting her to hardships and stripping away her pride, Thrushbeard's actions raise questions about the ethics of his methods. Rather than fostering genuine personal growth, his approach appears to derive satisfaction from her suffering. Instead of teaching humility, his behavior can be interpreted as a questionable and unnecessarily harsh form of retribution, something often referred to as "tough love". _ Background and framework: "Kingdom of the Dreamer" explores the legacy of classical storytelling through DocT’s widely recognized neo-expressionist visual language. Spurred by his reading of Grimms’ Fairy Tales as bedtime stories to his daughter, DocT finds inspiration in how folktales represent both timeless relevance and universally shared cultural lessons. Throughout the collection, familiar archetypes of European folklore converge in resemblance to a fragmented tarot deck. Between the rich colors and visual violence of his gestural marks, DocT’s work navigates a delicate balance between cheerful enthusiasm and terminal dread. _ Process and media: Each work is the outcome of a specifically designed multi-step process, which includes the creation of a series of base images with differing AI tools, the partial blending of the base images, and comprehensive post-editing using Photoshop and other editing tools. In brief, the process engages with techniques of digital collage as a means to create highly personal and emotionally charged works. _ Of note: The majority of pieces from this line of work will be 1/1 NFTs, apart from future airdrops to collectors and occasional edition pieces. Some works may also be available as separate physical artworks in the future, which would not include the NFT.