These seven digital collages mark an advance in my art making. The compositions are more complex, the narratives are clearer, and the gay experience is presented without fear. No figure hides and no desire is disguised. As such there is no lewdness in the representation of the male figure, candor in nature.
The first advance is depth. Earlier collages often place figures side by side on a single plane. Here, figures stand at different distances within one space. A hallway recedes from a partly dressed man in the foreground to two men in briefs behind him. A diner holds a uniformed worker mid-kick, shirtless men at the edges, and faces looking out from the bottom of the frame. Each figure comes from a different source, but each one occupies a believable place in the room.
The second advance is narrative format. One episode is a four-panel sequence of a nude man at a bathroom window, turning and gesturing from frame to frame. Another is a diptych built on two Manshots covers from the era of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." A third places a framed picture of two embracing men on a bathroom wall, so the room contains its own history of gay imagery. These formats let a single episode show time, sequence and memory.
The third advance is candor. Men undress, look at each other, touch and are aroused. A beach scene shows intimacy in open daylight with other men present. A hallway scene shows a man exposed and unashamed. These images are not coded. The subtext of earlier gay art, which hid desire inside bathers, myths and nude studies, is now the context.
The recurring icons connect the seven. The Jupiter 3 appears in every episode as freedom, escape and witness. The moons change color across the set. Pale moons recall invisibility and forced secrecy. Blue moons stand for longing and desire. Their placement beside men who are no longer hiding shows the distance between the life gay men were made to live and the life they live now.
These are gay men in interiors and landscapes living their best lives, free from discrimination, harassment and religious intolerance. The seven collages set the standard for the work to follow.
