Art byDePaul Vera

I’ve made peace with it. I am a human being who likes human beings and understands that all bodies are different. I just hope I’m invited to experience lots of them.

It started as training for me — young artists just wanting to draw and study the human form. Then it turned into exploiting men as artists have done to women for centuries. Now it’s purely and wholeheartedly about representation. I make sure that others feel seen, but I’m mainly reassuring myself that my body, with its Blackness and Queerness, can and should be unabashedly present in everything I create.

I can’t count how many times people have told me right after introducing themselves how they figured the artist was white — just from the pop art aesthetic. This presumption carries many biases and prejudices that leave me, as an artist, with detrimental questions to contemplate: how does the work change if made by white minds?

Some would argue admiration turns into fetishization. What does the work mean knowing that it’s from a Black mind? Is it still fetishization or now a celebration of reclaiming? Many Black narratives are rooted in being depicted through a painful lens — we assume those are the only narratives worth depicting. #BlackBoyJoy is here to stay!

I adore the admiration of all bodies and analyzing them against mine and each other — appreciating different tones against my own thrills me. Even though the first interracial marriage just turned 63, this intimacy still feels taboo, especially within art and especially within the gay community. This is the core of my work: forever bridging the unnecessary gap between races.

It’s not that the work should even be considered taboo — it’s getting people to think about the reasons why it would be regarded as such in the first place. My pop art creates an inviting space where showcasing your nudity becomes celebrated and adorned in ways that leave many people inspired and even more curious to be involved. It’s a vulnerable joyfulness that I bring to sexual content, making it more inviting for everyone.

It depends on a lot of things. I could’ve been inspired by a couple of Miami’s Art Deco buildings on my bike ride yesterday. Or maybe I have my mind dead set on a sunset composition? But most of the time, it’s taking scraps from the last piece and making something new — it has pleasantly become a convenient way for me to recycle.

I had three friends refer to me as “prolific” three times in one day, and it was the first time I had heard the word. I was on cloud nine that whole day, so thank you for noticing as well, Phil. There’s a nice range of projects I have going — from illustrating a gay-themed tarot deck to designing my friend’s sophomore novel to just signing a contract to paint a mural in my friend’s new condo. One of my new year’s resolutions was to expand my brand; I kept it vague purposefully for moments like this.