#LanguageArtz

As I see it, one of the biggest struggles lovers of language face is reconciling our appreciation for the manipulation of words with our respect for the rules that govern written communication. After all, nobody likes a Grammar Nazi--like comedian and wordsmith Stephen Fry says, they're too farting busy sneering at a greengrocer's less than perfect use of the apostrophe--but nobody likes being a Grammar Nazi, either.

And the internet only makes it harder. If you're like me, you heart the interwebz. Hard. But even if you aren't super bout that reddit lyfe and don't use hashtags on the daily, it's hard to escape textspeak and slang and LOLCats and, and, and.

Denver based artist Shawn Huckins is making it even harder to escape pop culture wordplay with his newest series, The American_Tier. The series consists of hand-painted replicas of 19th-Century works on top of which Huckins superimposes text drawn from pop culture jargon.

"J.J. Reynolds: Whatever"

In his artist's statement, Huckins poses a question: "If Lewis & Clark could comment today, would they click the ‘like’ button, or post ‘wtf?’ and then go check their Miley Cyrus tweet?"

I don't know. Personally, I just wanna tell Huckins "Bye, Felicia. I'mma just look at these pictures."

But real talk, I bet Lewis & Clark would have a bomb twitter feed. "Oh hai @TommyJeff. We all up n dis La Territory w. @Sacagawea. &btw, re: the Pacific. We #FountIt."