For some reason I have been thinking lately about the lonely death of the American writer Tennessee Williams. Here is a brilliant man who has crafted some to the greatest plays of all time for the American Theater. Things like A Streetcar Named Desire, The Glass Menagerie, and Cat On A Hot Tin Roof. He choked to death on the cap of some eye drops he was trying to open with his mouth on February 25, 1983. How is it that a man with such a great mind for creating some of the most fascinating and complex character studies can pass away from something so insignificant as a bottle cap? Tennessee Williams is probably one of the most influential people on my life and work. As a young theater student in my twenties, when I had finally entered his remarkable world, I felt like I had finally found a home. He wrote about all the things we as culture in Montana like to keep hidden and considered taboo: alcoholism, homosexuality, addiction, beauty, the loss of beauty, fear, doubt, and self-loathing. A world where people were trapped by their often-brutal existence. Nothing seemed sacred to Tennessee. He himself grew up in a shattered world, feeling closest to his sister Rose. She was schizophrenic, in and out of hospitals, eventually becoming lobotomized; she became the wellspring for much of his characterizations. He used the dysfunction of his life to add life to those remarkable characters of Blanche, Brick, Laura, or Alma. Everything he wrote seemed to plummet into the heart of darkness whether it was a play, novel, or even a short story. His writing was filled with passion, honesty, and above all humility. When I entered this world I somehow knew most of these characters and could see so much of his despair and depression within myself. I became addicted and spent a year reading everything consumable about the man. Eventually I directed a production of The Glass Menagerie for my senior project at the University. I still get a giddy feeling when I read anything written by this master and am still captivated by the ground away versions of the Hollywood classics. That scene with Elizabeth Taylor blurting out the truths of Sebastian using her for procurement of young boys leading to his cannibalistic death before she is about to be lobotomized by his mother, Katherine Hepburn, who will do anything to keep the truth hidden in Suddenly Last Summer is one of the greatest moments in film history and still sucks me in with it’s intensity. I could write a year of just blogs on Tennessee Williams alone.
So much of my own imagery and the worlds I enter with my own photography have to do with the feeling, tone, and mood of Tennessee Williams characters and stories. There is a beauty in the darkness where we remain hidden. My work becomes about exposing the inner life of my characters in a raw and sometimes vulnerable way. There is so much depth hidden within all of us that is rarely allowed to surface. Yet there is remarkable beauty in that depth. This is the place I like to explore with my subjects. This has been a year of finding a wholeness within myself and I feel that dysfunction beginning to fade. I fear this may affect my work. I somehow doubt it because I have always got Mr. Williams to remind me of where I have been. To me he is the essential homosexual on my shelf. It’s unfortunate the upcoming generation doesn’t even know his name, as the quotes of his characters imbued my generation and gave life to an culture, fade into a lost oblivion. We no longer rely on the kindness of strangers, but instead become the strangers.
I am strongly becoming empowered by other artists’ images. I have been working with several other artists from around the world who have submitted images and writings that I have been creating galleries of for this project. It means spending a great deal of time with each image to build page by page and the more I study others work and talk to them the more I somehow become connected to their worlds. There is such strength in the impression they impart on their works no matter the style of medium they work. Each piece needs to be studied individually to really understand its power. In many ways it’s unfortunate to show such a large body of work because it forces us to skim through it as a collection without really paying attention to the detail. Where as each piece is a single moment suspended in time, which has often taken hours, days, some times even months to create. I am beginning to realize the images should be looked at individually. Unfortunately, we live in a world where we are inundated with so much imagery that we often just spend a few moments working our way through the vastness of it all. In olden days, images were hung on a wall of a gallery, museum, or salon and you were forced to interact and respond to the pieces that hung before you and when something really caught your eye you could linger and try to unravel it’s mysterious influence. I don’t think this happens so much anymore. We may bookmark or download an image and it becomes part of a vast collection, we may never even get back to again, because there is something new to see. And often times when we do go back and look at an image it will not have the same impact it had in the first place because we have changed and now see it from another perspective. But if we linger long enough, the power of the artists’ vision begins to take hold and influences the way we see ourselves and our own sense of our own creation and we see the artist as a mirror to ourselves. In the 1972 version of the film “Cabaret” the director Bob Fosse borrowed an idea from the original script in which the play ends by dropping a large mirror down so the audience can literally see the reflection of themselves revealing and asking us to examine the judgmental racism of Nazi Germany within ourselves. It is a powerful moment of the show. Though it doesn’t quite work on film the mirror is still there and becomes a reflection turning our focus inward. Art dealing with the still taboo subject of male nudity still has that impact and I am delighted to be and adoringly enamored to the be the in company of such amazing talents.
I have a young extremely talented filmmaker friend who has developed a brilliant script that he is trying to raise funding to produce. It’s going to be an extremely low budget film with a wallop. I have read the script and it very good and having seen this kid’s work from the past I totally can see his vision and know he can pull it off to create something extraordinary. The story centers around a guilt-ridden custodian of a decaying hotel that is dragged back from despair by a mercurial young woman with her own bleak past.
It feels remarkable to finally have some time to focus on things that most interest me now. I just need to process this wedding and then the remainder of the year will be working full force on The Naked Man Project website. It feels like we are finally beginning to tame the beast of understanding how the project functions internally. New artists have been submitting works and I have been building galleries for them. The first one should be up in the next couple of days and I have to say for the first time in months, I am quite excited by the prospects of potentially where this project can go. There are so dang many talented people out there that have been hidden or that very few people know. I feel like I have finally found my place and am creating a place of expression for artist wanting to deal with identity and the nude male. This vision that I have been dreaming of all year now becomes a reality. There are still people commenting on the old Blogger blog and I would encourage everyone to now move or begin posting in the new blog. I cannot transfer your comments and I would love all that you are saying to become a part of the permanent record of what this project is becoming. I have always seen myself as a collective artist and strongly believe in art as collaboration. This includes feedback from both artist and non-artist. If it stirs a feeling or emotion and it is worth documenting or expressing your opinion. I know this sometimes takes a lot of time to log in and do, but it becomes worthwhile and meaningful to others. It is our goal to have everything cleaned up and the site fully functional, with most of the bugs worked out and formally release the site, on December 1st. My goal then for the month of December is the begin opening up all the galleries, and get the featured artist section completely functional. I then want to close out this year by getting back into the studio and shooting new works. I began shooting some new stuff last week and it has a fascinating new edge to it. Then in January, I want to begin working on reviving the old Man Art with its original creators to build a social network, that was the original source that inspired me to ultimately begin this project in the first place, and build a home for fearless creative expression. This is only the first phase in something remarkable about to emerge.
The Naked Man Project website has been up for a week now and though you may not see changes happening to it, I assure you it is continually still under construction. We are still trying to learn the programs and how it all functions together from the back end and there are still lots of detail stuff going on within that inner structure. Reminder this is a works in progress website so if you are on and you begin to see things shifting around or moving as we are working on various components of the site. It’s a true content management system so everything is always live and you work and change things in real time, which is really quite a fascinating way to work on the web, because you instantly see the impact it has on the site. And yes we are still making lots of mistakes. At this point I am systematically working my way through all the controls, turning new modules on and working with them, seeing if it something we can use, then adapting it or deleting it. There are about a hundred of these modules that can be worked through so you may see things appear and disappear as you are browsing. I really encourage people to sign on and become a member, there is no charge and it does take you to a deeper level so you can see the works as they were intended to be. You actually only need an email address to register and can be as anonymous as you want. I also encourage people to now post comments on the new blog since the old one doesn’t transfer those comments made to the new one and this will become the permanent record of the project. There are so many amazing people with great insight I really want to preserve. We have many galleries built, plus many artists outside the project are beginning to work on galleries to add to the featured section and several new articles written but wanted to get some of the understructure working before I added too much. Any feedback or recommendations are greatly appreciated. I do have a couple of big jobs that I need to finish up this week so a lot of my energy will be focused there. Thank you for making this website such a success already and thanks for helping it to grow.
