This is an original painting - not a print. FREE SHIPPING
PLEASE READ THIS: This painting will be in a show through 15 December 2025. The earliest shipping date will be on 16 December 2025.
Ships from Round Lake Beach, Illinois (a suburb outside Chicago) via UPS or USPS
This is one of my largest paintings—36x36 inches, oil on gallery-wrapped canvas, so it doesn’t need a frame. It ships ready to hang.
Big Love is grounded in the body positivity movement. For years, I struggled with accepting how my body changed as I aged. Painting helped me work through it. I started depicting people who looked more like me—hairy, thick, aging—and discovered I wasn’t alone. The bear subculture within gay culture gave that experience a name and a community.
Body positivity is the belief that everyone deserves to have a positive body image, regardless of what society says about ideal shapes or appearances. This painting reflects that by:
Challenging societal standards of attractiveness
Celebrating bodies that are large, hairy, and real
Encouraging confidence and acceptance of ourselves
Giving visibility to marginalized aesthetics
In gay culture, a “bear” is a larger, often hairier man who projects rugged masculinity. Most straight people have never heard of it, but bears have built their own world: bars, books, festivals, even their own slang. “Woof” and “grrrr” are compliments. “Cubs,” “wolves,” and “otters” round out the spectrum. It’s a full vocabulary for a community that embraces real bodies and sexual diversity.
This piece came together slowly, over a couple of weeks. That kind of layered approach wasn’t possible back when I lived in California with a cramped studio. Since moving to Illinois, I’ve taken over the basement as my painting studio—tons of room, great ventilation, and space to let things dry. I now paint in layers, allowing time for the oils to set and textures to build.
The process started as a rough sketch directly on the canvas using crayon. From there, I developed the underpainting in washes of oil, eventually working up to opaque layers. On the final day, I built up areas with thick paint using plaster knives and bristle brushes. Some areas have 2–3 cm of paint on the surface. The result is a muscular, textured skin-like surface that enhances the physicality of the figure.
This painting is affectionate, personal, and rooted in a political and cultural dialogue. It’s about aging, confidence, queerness, and how much space we deserve to take up in the world—physically and emotionally.
Details:
This is an original painting - not a print. FREE SHIPPING
PLEASE READ THIS: This painting will be in a show through 15 December 2025. The earliest shipping date will be on 16 December 2025.
Ships from Round Lake Beach, Illinois (a suburb outside Chicago) via UPS or USPS
This is one of my largest paintings—36x36 inches, oil on gallery-wrapped canvas, so it doesn’t need a frame. It ships ready to hang.
Big Love is grounded in the body positivity movement. For years, I struggled with accepting how my body changed as I aged. Painting helped me work through it. I started depicting people who looked more like me—hairy, thick, aging—and discovered I wasn’t alone. The bear subculture within gay culture gave that experience a name and a community.
Body positivity is the belief that everyone deserves to have a positive body image, regardless of what society says about ideal shapes or appearances. This painting reflects that by:
Challenging societal standards of attractiveness
Celebrating bodies that are large, hairy, and real
Encouraging confidence and acceptance of ourselves
Giving visibility to marginalized aesthetics
In gay culture, a “bear” is a larger, often hairier man who projects rugged masculinity. Most straight people have never heard of it, but bears have built their own world: bars, books, festivals, even their own slang. “Woof” and “grrrr” are compliments. “Cubs,” “wolves,” and “otters” round out the spectrum. It’s a full vocabulary for a community that embraces real bodies and sexual diversity.
This piece came together slowly, over a couple of weeks. That kind of layered approach wasn’t possible back when I lived in California with a cramped studio. Since moving to Illinois, I’ve taken over the basement as my painting studio—tons of room, great ventilation, and space to let things dry. I now paint in layers, allowing time for the oils to set and textures to build.
The process started as a rough sketch directly on the canvas using crayon. From there, I developed the underpainting in washes of oil, eventually working up to opaque layers. On the final day, I built up areas with thick paint using plaster knives and bristle brushes. Some areas have 2–3 cm of paint on the surface. The result is a muscular, textured skin-like surface that enhances the physicality of the figure.
This painting is affectionate, personal, and rooted in a political and cultural dialogue. It’s about aging, confidence, queerness, and how much space we deserve to take up in the world—physically and emotionally.
Details:
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