Each sculpture pictured in this collection was created in the span of four months in which I was investigating a means of expressing my experiences through life as a homosexual man. These experiences include but are not limited to issues of acceptance from friends and family, stereotypes of gay men, the action of accommodating homophobia by adjusting ones personality to avoid awkwardness or conflict, etc.
Admittedly so, I recognize that I could have had much worse experiences, and am privileged to have not seen the backlash that many face daily for being who they are.
When viewing this work, it is apparent that this body of work is inspired by domesticity. This work blurs the line between masculinity and femininity through usage of the traditionally male dominated language of construction, and female dominated world of fibers artwork. I am interested in the collaboration of both languages, which can be seen, for example, in my sculpture “A Delicate Portrait of a Manly Man,” both visually, and in the title itself.
In this book there are a series of five short poems that I have written in reference to specific moments that I have experienced in life, and re-analyze frequently. The titles of these pieces are hints to the subject matter come from these moments as well, and feed into the meaning behind the sculptures themselves.
Many sculptures in this body of work include an amorphous blob-like form of sorts. I see these as self portraits. The form comes from photographs of myself taken to evoke an emotion coinciding with the meaning of the sculpture. I study these photographs for days, ultimately tracing different contours found on the body and shadows to discover the contour that I then turn into these forms. The idea of taking something that holds so much information and emotion, then reducing that form into a simple contour is a very purposeful decision in my work.
I would like to thank those who have supported me in both my life as a member of the LGBT community, as well as those who have supported me throughout my passion of creating artwork. I am very grateful to the professors I have had in my time in school, and peers who have helped shape my work and ability to discuss the art I create through the platform of critiques and review settings.
All aspects of this book including the sculptures themselves, photography, editing, writing, digital illustrations, book layout and design, typography, printing and binding were done by Brian Michael Smith; 2016 [with the exception of the quote on page 3.]
