| In 2022, I learned of the death of a remarkable friend from my teenage years. It took me some months to figure out what imagery would expain how amazing and brave he was. In late March 2023, frustrated, I just forced myself to begin, certain what I was laying out was not good enough but that I just need to start finally. Doing so, I stumbled into an idea that was far more effective than I hoped I'd find. It will be a bear to paint but I am pretty excied. This one is for you Robert Appleton, whereever you are. So sorry growing up in Aspen was so painful. You were way ahead of your time. Robbie turned his back on Aspen and all of us, so it is appropriate perhaps that I begin his portrait on top of an old painting of Aspen's Buckskin Pass. It was incredible that in 1983 NYC based kink photographer Jimmy DeSana allowed a skinny bullied high school sophomore with no assets in Aspen, Colorado, to stage a solo exhibition for him. This kid Robbie Appleton found a vacant summer ski rental space to turn in to a gallery and connected with Jimmy to create the show. Now Aspen in 1983, pre internet with a population of 7000 and a very limited tiny library was a total desert when it came to any kind of even vanilla homoerotic imagery. So Jimmy's imagery was way, way out there, especially for kids who hadn't even had sex yet. How Robbie even heard of Jimmy is a mystery let alone had the confidence after being bullied by the rich, handsome, atheletic son of a celebrity to launch a show of De Sana's work is mindboggling. Jimmy must have been quite a person to make that happen. In the era of AIDs and years before President Reagan would even speak he word, needless to say, the local paper The Aspen Times did not cover the wild exhibit as they had done for Robbie's first show of local "children's" art held in a stairwell of his mom's employee housing apartment building. In my painting, Robbie stands touching his homemade Gallery sign, modified by me to inlucde Jimmy DeSana's name and the Breeze Ski Rental Shop. His drag alter ego, lifted from grainy video and archived online symblocally juggles a chocolate bunny ( from his school day's 'Bunny Mellon' Chocolate Rabbit Liberation Club mentioned by a friend on his legacy obituary), an athletic sock from his fabulous later drag ensemble assemebled from dozens of them, on of Jimmy DeSana's oft photographed red cones, a phone that he worked to make the show happen, and a Mortar Board and apple acknowledging his role in early education as the beloved "Professor Apple." Background text will recall his Howdy Sailor painting exhibit in NYC, the bullying he endured, the songs he lip synced and more. Stay tuned. | |
