|
The Artist Muses
I have to say that
I'm mighty sick of this flood of ordinariness. Lately I've noticed the
profusion of “reality” shows offered on television. I keep the set
on all day, every day. For someone who works alone at home and spends
unbelievable amounts of time sitting and drawing, television is an
invaluable tool. It's company that doesn't require my attention, and I
can flit among the channels for the less abrasive and obtrusive
programming. Right through all the reality cop shows, talk shows, Court
TV, all-crammed-in-a-box-together shows, dating shows, and so on. However,
snippets of “real,” authentic human activity don't qualify as
entertainment for me. When I want to see real people, I go to the post
office, the grocery store, or just stroll the streets. The purpose of
art is to condense and distill the doings of men, to create characters
emblematic of the human condition, and to enlighten and illuminate by
filtering human behavior through the artist's singular vision. That's what I try to
do with my drawings, to encapsulate the various terrains, conditions,
and connections made in the gay world. I think of myself as a pictorial
historian, committing every queer's experience to paper. I don’t draw
from models or real people. My guys are stand-ins for everyone who's
ever sucked a dick, incorporating the lust, confusion, contentment,
guilt, passion, and bonding that I observe in the homo realm. I’d like
viewers to recognize familiar situations and see a spark of their own
lives displayed in my work, to sense the true brotherhood inherent in
who we are and what we do with each other. I want my illustrations to
unite us as a tribe, letting every fag know that he belongs, that he is
welcome, and that he is not alone. I've been criticized
for not drawing “pretty” men, but I believe that old, fat, ethnic,
plain, disabled, and unusual queers exist and are equally deserving of
being depicted and recorded for gay history. Not only the
hyper-attractive have sex; there is a wide range of men and boys outside
of the “Tom of Finland” mold that are fantastic and imaginative sex
partners. I'm interested and intrigued by them all, and determined to
include them in my body of work.
I like to record the
responses and reactions men have to each other. A cock being shoved in
an ass is pretty meaningless without the accompanying thoughts revealed
through the characters' faces. I want mobile, flexible features that
betray the mind's inner workings, bringing a real psychological subtext
to the scenario. Beautiful people often suffer from a form of emotional
Botox, being so self-aware that they fail to exhibit any honesty in
their expressions. There are plenty of artists recording the “ideal”
man already. This emphasis on masculine beauty promotes a kind of
narcissism that undermines our value as a tribe, reducing us to boring,
narrow-minded, image-obsessed caricatures. We are more important,
relevant, and powerful than such stereotypes suggest, and I use art to
portray this belief. Though I'm fairly
prolific and widely published, there are no fortunes to be made in this
particular profession. I do it to honor anyone who has had the courage
to thwart society’s strictures and conventions by taking another man's
dick in his hands. I do it for all those who won't accept the roles
assigned to them, for those who defy the proscribed “reality” and
have the courage to forge their own.
— Michael Kirwan |
Look
for more work by Michael Kirwan featured in the