Who was your first male crush? (Public figure or private figure)
My first serious crush was on Parker Stevenson, who played Frank Hardy in the television series of The Hardy Boys, with his feathered brown hair and beady eyes. It was more a crush on the character he played, as portrayed by him. I read all of the Hardy Boy adventures to extend my fantasies of us exploring and spelunking together. The big brother figure loomed large in a lot of my teen fantasies, with Wally Cleaver, and Bud, from Father Knows Best also figuring into my dream Boy Scout Troupe. The idea of exploring together is something that still has great meaning in my romantic life.
Why does body hair fascinate you enough to explore it in your art?
To see the world in a grain of sand… A local curator, looking at my work years ago, which I had described as being the result of obsession, claimed that he didn’t see any obsession. He encouraged me to stop talking about being obsessed and to show it. Body hair triggers my salivary glands and makes my diaphragm contract. While my relation to body hair is a bit intense, my work isn’t about obsession, for I try to channel my obsession into works that are experiential, conceptual, critical, as well as obsessive. Simply put, I photograph what I like to look at. Intimately.
What is your favorite museum in the whole world?
I have many, but certainly one of my favorites is the Museo della Specola, in Florence, for their life-sized wax models of the various systems of the body. The figures were made in the late 19th century and feature subjects reclining on pillows and with a hand drawn across a forehead, or eyes looking off into the distance, while their bodies are splayed open and peeled apart. It’s a fascinating mix of the beauty and horror of the body.