ARTIST STATEMENT:
Queer desire is inherently mythological. As a gay figurative painter, I explore stories of longing, obsession, shame, and sex through a lens of mythic symbolism.
Stories of ancient myth relate to the queer experience, specifically because of their parallel-yet-disconnected status from modern culture. Myths of exile, longing, and transformation mirror the closet, yearning, and self-actualization of my own journey as a gay man in society.
My paintings center the nude male body as both subject and mirror. The act of looking is the silent question. Do you see me as I see you? The Male Gaze, from a gay male perspective becomes a feedback loop between desire and identity. By presenting the nude male body, I aim to deify what others call sin. In nudity, desire stands bare.
And then there is the concept of obscuring. Contemporary culture is bound to the image. Beauty, self worth, and sex are all wrapped up in the curated face you present to the world. Mythology can be a mask you wear. To be seen fully is a risk, so to hide away my anxieties, I wear a persona. I may choose to heighten one aspect of myself until I become that concept incarnate. Each figure I paint embodies a fragment of myself, a personal mythology built from longing.
Overt fantastical symbolism is my language to convey desire. If I yearn for health and strength, let a towering body soar. If I desire to hide my insecurities, let me lock myself behind gilded cages. Through fantasy, I make my inner world visible. And through specificity, I open the doors to universality. I cannot tell the story of every person, but I hope that in what I show, you may see an echo of your own yearning.
I do not wish to see the world as a realist. Through myth and symbol, I gild my own dreams. I build worlds where queer beauty is exalted and where longing is divine. My eyes are clouded by desire, and I aim to paint the world full of sweeping color and on the grandest of scales. In exaggeration, I tell the truth.
Icarus
2024
Oil
56x94
Narcissus
2025
The Yearning of the Waves
2024
Secrets
2024
