Could you talk us through the inspiration behind your art? When I first started painting in high school, I was completely inspired by landscapes. In college, however, I did lots of photo and wound up getting my degrees in sculpture, with a strong interest in conceptual aspects. Text also came in significantly at this time. It may look like some about face, but in the late 90’s with the beginning of my photo series STUD DUST and the young men in it, I began to address another side of me I’d never approached before. The male image and the idea of male beauty has been so suppressed throughout history, that I was barely aware of it going through school. Sports figures have always been around, of course, and some people think Michelangelo’s “David” ought to suffice for all people and all times. But I’ve found that the guys I paint can encompass all of my former concerns, at the same time that they offer the world a take on maleness that is accessible to everyone, and arguably erotic at times in ways that go beyond the
usual “eye candy.” I think of the guys as stem cells, able to go off in any direction at their young age, and fulfil issues of beauty and intelligence on many levels simultaneously. I think of William Blake’s line: “To see the world in a grain of sand, and heaven in a wild flower, to hold infinity in the palm of your hand, and eternity in an hour.” These guys are that. Do you think the perceived image or stereotype of masculinity has changed in the last decade? I think it’s been changing ever since feminism came along. Masculinity now has some acknowledged feminine side, and it’s men who have embraced the idea. What are you listening to right now? I listen to quite a mix; I even flip between radio stations. While I like jazz the most, the coolest thing can happen when some pop song is on, and some lyric will float out and hit some perfect nail on the head in my head, and I will write it down on the painting (if I’m working on paper) as not only some annotation of the studio process that day but as some real emotional tie to the
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