Above: 'Early Spring' and 'Jamie'
Right, it’s an every day thing.
And that’s the anti-spectacle of it that’s beautiful too, is that it’s not always this sort of production. I feel like the ways it exists in society can be so unrealistic.
Or just in culture, in movies or art, the way sex is treated.
Definitely. So I guess, too, the reason people respond to my work, is there does feel like there’s a bit of a void or space where sex, gay sex particularly, isn’t always afforded a space to be talked about that way.
Right, like as something beautiful and elegant.
Yeah, or treated with as much dignity, but also with just the frankness that it deserves.
I love the idea of it being a daily thing, too—especially in New York, we’re around so many people, it’s just this charged energy.
Right, you get on the subway and it’s like, whoa.
Especially in the summer.
You see people for the first time, like actually.
People come out of their shell, it’s like well, hello. So where in the city to do you live?
I live in Williamsburg. My studio is in DUMBO. I think that affected the work, too. I’m on this residency where I’m right on the water, and my view is of the Manhattan Bridge, the Brooklyn Bridge, over the river, it’s really stunning, it’s amazing to be able to look at it every day and really feel yourself here in the city, not in some basement somewhere. I think painters are always look backwards, too, at least the paintings I love reference art history, and the idea of New York painting is so romantic and powerful. That was a big part of wanting to be this New York thing, too.
Like New York is a character or an intimate partner as well. Especially since you’re so fresh here.
I think anyone new here wants to love it. It’s hard to be here, too, so I think you have to make a conscious effort sometimes, like, ‘No this is good, this is special.’