Another archived sketch, done on the reverse side of Celebration Theatre stationery, inherited from my late spouse, John Callahan, though he was still alive at the time (1988/89).
I’m pretty sure that was drawn from my imagination, not from life. I saw that because this could, credibly, be a life drawing. But I don’t think I ever made it with a guy who looked like that.
Work in progress. Mostly ink on paper, with some slight additions in Photoshop.
I either drew this for my one man show at the One Way or for Secret Love #3. Notice that I did the artwork on a page of a newsletter for Black and White Men Together. It looks to have been done in gouache and
This is the original artwork for the flyer I did to help hype my one man exhibition at the One Way in 1989. The bulk of the artwork was acrylic paintings I did on grocery bags that I broke apart and gessoed on one side. The rest of the pieces were these drawings done on the back or front of old leaflets or pages of junk mail. Those pieces that went into the show had to be cut down to 8″x10″ so they could fit into the plastic jewel boxes I chose as my agent of display. Any pieces still surviving at 8.5″ x 11″ must not have gone into the exhibition.
This drawing may have been intending for my one man exhibition at the ONE WAY, a leather bar I used to frequent in Silverlake back in the late 80’s. I wasn’t into leather per se, but I found some of the guys hot. But my show didn’t go up until summer 1989 and many of these drawings I’ll be posting over the next few days are dated 1988, so I’m guessing I did them for inclusion in “Secret Love” #4.
I purchased “Secret Love” #2 at A Different Light Bookstore (a LGBT specialty bookstore) in Silverlake, California. “Secret Love” was a limited (very limited) edition art folio where one could send in 100 copies of anything one wanted, along with 10 dollars, and be included in the next issue. So I sent 100 front and back xeroxes of 2 of my homoerotic drawings for issue #3 and was jazzed when I received my contributor’s copy. With issue #4, I got ambitious, as I recall. I figured, why not send in 100 original drawings, all done on the back (or front) of whatever pieces of throw-away paper I had lying around. All the drawings would be done super fast (I set my timer for 5 minutes). I don’t know why I still have these drawings. I do know I don’t have a copy of “Secret Love” #4, so either it never happened or I ran out of gas. I don’t think the latter is the case since I re-purposed many of those drawings for my one man exhibition at the ONE WAY, entitled “Recycled Erotica”, as all the art was executed on Trash Paper.
Mister Clean, waiting for service. This sketch was drawn on the back of a piece of “Celebration Theatre” stationary; we had a lot of it around at my house as my late husband, John Callahan was the artistic director of Celebration Theatre for several years. In case you don’t know, Celebration Theatre was (is?) one of the, perhaps the, pioneering LGBT theatre in the country, founded by Chuck Rowland in the 60’s or 70s or 80s. If you’re curious, look it up on Wikipedia.
I sketched this on ledger paper. Later I tried to paint a version of it using acrylics but gave up.
I started this drawing in a 1995 sketchbook, finished it last night. I liked the original drawing, especially the quality of the dry brush ink line, but it wasn’t finished, didn’t convey the mood I was trying to communicate at the time. So I finished it, or did a finish on it, in Photoshop. I still have the original drawing and the raw scan, so I haven’t obliterated my past.
