Special
(tag 21)
2013

Private Collection

Assemblage (12.5” x 12.75” x 3.5”)

Exhibition History:
California Heritage Museum, April 27-November 8, 2019

Artist description:

This is one of the artist’s autobiographical pieces. The artist grew up in the 1950s when the US culture was very cowboy/cowgirl centric, with country swing music playing on the radio and primarily Westerns (cowboy vs. Indians) playing on the then relatively new invention of TV. As such, the kind-hearted, masculine cowboy became the artist’s male role model and ideal, which was also true for most American boys from that time period. However, the artist felt that he was somehow different from his other young male friends. He could not quite figure it out until his hormones finally kicked-in during puberty. It was then that he realized that he not only had an emotional connection to the cowboy but also a sexual attraction.

In this artwork we see that the photograph of the young cowboy is placed in the center of the male gender symbol. However, instead of the arrow tip on the male symbol we see the fleur-de-lis reflecting the artist’s early childhood gut feeling that he was somehow “different,” only later in his teens discovering and coming to terms with the fact that he was a masculine male who was also gay.