Long story, basically started with three things. I painted this in 2008 or so and it was picked up by a blogger on Tumblr named "Chubby Jay" who shared the sh!t out of it.
My florist who I buy flowers from every week for my partner suggested/asked me to paint some beautiful men for him. His friends came over and started to literally try to swipe the paintings from his walls. So I made more and started to sell them parallelly to my other subject matter such as film noir and photobooth stuff.
Then I watched this video on marketing by Michael Cuffe in which he talks a young woman who painted subjects that looked like her.
I realized that I felt like I was exploiting the young people and women I was painting and that I should paint people who looked like me that way I could avoid participating in making art for the male gaze and exploiting youth culture. So I started painting hairy slightly chubby middle aged men and it has kind of made my career. You should watch this guy's video.
These are the only sites authorized to sell my art:
https://www.etsy.com/shop/kmencher
https://www.kenney-mencher.net/
So many amazing images, but the one at the top of this post really resonates with me, because I see myself in this image - the big man. And to see desire, lust and appreciation on the face of the other man - well, it makes for a vivid painting and a very meaningful one for me.
ReplyDeleteThank you very much for your comment.
Delete