The magical explorations of Jester on the effects of light and water.
Pools represent fluidity, purity, cleanliness, weightlessness, freshness, inclusion, exclusion, and isolation.
I was always drawing or painting while growing up. Over the years, I have worked in many disciplines, from printmaking to painting, but I received my BFA and MFA in Sculpture. Currently, I live in Palm Springs, California, where I paint full time.
This current series of paintings that I am finishing is of men in pools. The work was inspired by online gay life but has become much more for me. I think we live in a time when being visible and proud is more important than ever. How we present ourselves to each other, how we treat each other, plays a key role.
I have loved painting my subjects in pools. Pools are environments rich in metaphors. They are worlds that exist side by side and are part of the larger world, just as the gay community is a subset of society. The people inside the pool looking out or those outside looking in have a slightly distorted view of each other. Pools represent fluidity, purity, cleanliness, suspension, temperature, inclusion, exclusion, and isolation. Pools isolate a group of people and become their own community, a moment in time, another “world.” In a way, this is how I see the gay community: separate but part of the larger world.
