Steamy Inktober with Legend and Wild

Travis drew me in the nude at HIM, (Health Initiative for Men), a prolific organization in the LGBTQ2S community and which specializes in gay men. They hold life drawing sessions by donation, I had attended one and offered to volunteer.

I had heard about this session from a prolific Vancouver model who has lost his mind and is creating a lot of drama on social media, harassing models in private messaging.

I know, it’s a crispy subject but unfortunately one for another day. Interestingly enough, I was just drawing a duo of models for the Inktober prompt sling (stay tuned) and we were talking about it during break. It turns out he had harassed 4 people in the room if you include me.

There is a certain tribal aspect to the work, or “the piece” which I had not intended. Strangely, it would seem that same tribal aspect was the one thing you appreciated.

I was talking to Travis about this drawing, wanting to include Legend and Wild for the Inktober challenge. He mentioned the word Arsenokoitai when I said I associated the drawing with those themes. It is a biblical term which could hold clues as to the shamanistic place people displaying homosexual behavior could have held in ancient western cultures. He added that: “There is a certain tribal aspect to the work, or “the piece” which I had not intended. Strangely, it would seem that same tribal aspect was the one thing you appreciated.“

In my Queer Studies at Concordia, I learned that you cannot call homosexual a person which existed before the modern times where the word was invented. This adds yet another layer of mystery to the word Arsenokoitai.

It is very hard to research deities representing homosexuality because so many pagan cultures have been conquered by monotheist religions and erased from history.

Another of Travis’ studies. For someone who seldom draws, he knows how to bring the Egon Shiele. The following few are from the session at HIM.

I rose above myself to appreciate a birds eye view of my own ass and as my boyfriend would say, however with a somewhat different connotation “what an ass!”

I was in the moment, my heart was pounding and I felt like I was crossing life modeling in fetish gear off my bucket list.

As the sun beamed upon the single drop of pre-cum falling from my penis, I realized that I hadn’t noticed how turned on I was. And then, a quick wave of a somewhat alien shyness came over me.

It was a strange feeling, I wasn’t sure why my manhood was engorged. It was a surreal experience but I felt safe knowing that these older gentlemen had seen it all and were not bothered.

It is one of the great puzzle of my artistic process, where does the porn end and the art begin? This is why I could only explain it with having a hard on for art. A boner for life itself, a desire to take another breath, it came and went like the ebb and flow of the tide. As my lungs were swelling and decompressing, it occurred to me that it could have had something to do with the romantic thought that Travis was drawing me.

When it comes to appealing to my readers by sharing very intimate parts of my life, I think of the HBO show girls.

To quote Hannah, "I think I might be the voice of my generation. Or, at least, a voice of a generation."

Sheer determination is what pushes her to be an exhibitionist. It is out of desire to get noticed in a sea of talent.

Here it is, the final drawing. My roommate Gabriel liked it so much that I gave it to him and it felt genuinely good to find it a home.

The Muxe of Zapotec cultures are often considered to be bringers of luck. They are a surviving example of how alternate sexualities and gender identities have been seen as spiritually beneficial to society. Not outcasts but people who can be revered. This is why you can see wheat, a symbol of abundance behind the deity.

I used Legend since it was for me an exercise in imagining long forgotten lores. It is obviously Wild for being so primal and on all fours which made Travis’ drawing a perfect starting point for mine.

It may not be as naive and raw as his image. However, those impulsive marks in a variety of weight and tone provided a wonderful framework to deepen my naive technique in contrast with some of my more realistic work I do. It was blissful to bring elements of my story together which would have otherwise been antithetical.

This should serve to authenticate me in the #porn tribe