Tell us about the paintings you’ve made of Dennis. Contemplating His Dharma was the first painting I did of him—I believe that was during the first year of our relationship. It portrays his soulful, introspective nature and spirituality. The Snake Charmer was part of a series I did inspired by sideshow banners with a queer twist. It shows his more sensual, sexy side, caressing a snake tattoo that winds around his chest. Looking for the Answers is from my War Paint series, which portrays models coating their faces and bodies in different pigments that represent something about them as an individual. Dennis is always striving to collect information and connect dots to learn more about our world, and I chose green as his color because he is most at peace in nature. Wounded Healer is from my recent series called The Masks We Wear. He’s shown holding a plague
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doctor mask away from his face, representing his ability to connect with his cancer patients by sometimes letting his guard down in order to interact with them on a human/emotional level. You are around young people a lot and part of organizations that help children. Are you and Dennis going to adopt one day? We considered adopting at one time and even went to meet with an attorney to learn about our options, but it ultimately wasn’t for us. There’s nothing missing in our lives right now, except for maybe a puppy which we hope to find one day soon. If we had kids of our own, we wouldn’t be able to do nearly as much to help other people’s kids. Dennis works so much and I have so many different projects going on at once that it would be very difficult for us to make children a priority without significantly changing our lifestyle. And we
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figured why mess with a thing!
What advice do you ha young future artists?
My advice for young futu artists is don’t wait until t future. You can be an art right now! Some of the m innovative, exciting work ever seen has been mad young people. If you love make art, then make it a take yourself seriously. C yourself an artist and nev apologize for your art. W you create doesn’t need to measure up to anythin except what’s in your he and in your heart. If it do that, then you’ve created something really importa and worthwhile.
