Is Nick My New Gardener?

Mitchell - Dishonest Gardener in colour

 Having discharged my last dishonest gardener (above),

 I've decided to hold auditions sorry interviews for his replacement 

and I just happened to notice this picture in Nick Sterling's CV 

whilst preparing my last blog on men sharing swimming trunks. 

Nick Sterling in cut-offs

Cut-off denim jeans are not a prerequisite for my job but they certainly help!
These days it's a rare delicacy to see tatters of cotton tumbling over a man's thighs.

 

Nick seems to have the right qualifications for the job. Those dreadful shades will have to go of course, he won't need them in England anyway. I do sense a regrettable degree of self importance here, but I like a confident man working for me and any issues can be sorted out with him in the garden shed if need be. Frankly, I'd put up with a lot of backchat in the presence of those thighs! Nick's open flies suggest a willingness to please but I'll have to instruct him not to approach Mrs Chamberlain, my housekeeper, like that.

Nick's currently working as yacht crew.
 He's obviously not afraid of hard work
and familiarity with ropes and rigging is a bonus. 

 

I can just see him hosing down the patio......

 

Or weeding my herbaceous borders like this.......

 

A winning smile 

and even if he proves as unsatisfactory as the last one (God forbid!), 

then I can still see his nicely tapered torso binding up very well.

for his formal 'discharge' procedure.

Pictures courtesy of Randy Blue

click on the mitchpix label below for more drawings by Mitchell 

Men Sharing Clothes - 12 Blue Swimming Trunks

Looking back over this series I'm amazed to find that I've not featured men swapping swimming trunks before. Men in Speedos are well up the sexy league table, the briefest of all sportswear to be seen on TV and often showing pert little projections through gleaming fabric. Men get wet wearing them too which gives them a particularly intimate nature.

 

 

The garment featured here on Adam Rexx is a sensible design and at first sight they look like an unlikely beefcake combination.

 

However, Adam and his trunks reveal their true erotic qualities in this shot. This glamour pose used to be the norm for women in soft porn photography and Adam's long shapely legs reveal just why it held such a fascination for men. The cut of the swimming trunks reveals an astonishing amount of very sexy buttock and if you think this pose conceals a man's primary asset look again at this picture (click to enlarge) and the next! Sometimes less is more!

 

In this shot Adam's gleaming torso suggests those trunks are getting well used, ready for the next model. As he eases them down it's amazing the difference an inch or two makes. The bright highlight running down the side of his body seems to pass underneath the trunks before continuing along the top of his thigh and this gives a tremendous sexy sense of the naked body under the garment.

 

The speedos now pass to an altogether different man, Nick Sterling is more fleshy and cuddly. The trunks seem to suit him well but sadly they are quickly discarded for other gear including some distinctly unsexy baggy plaid shorts. Perhaps Nick didn't like sharing with Adam?

I fancy the same pose in those blue trunks would look very sexy too! But I can't complain about this shot, who's next for the used jocks?

 

Pictures by Randy Blue

For other articles in this series click on 'sharing' in the label list below

Bar Predators Revisited

Bar Predators by Tom
(completed by Mitchell)

This is my visualisation of how Tom might have finished the incomplete picture in the Bar Predator's series. I've followed his composition as exactly as I can and tried to emulate his shading style.
See my original article on Tom of Finland's Bar predators

  for other gay art by Mitchell at mitchmen blog click on the 'mitchpix' label below

Priapus of Milet - 4 (last)

11

Centaur 08

It would be wrong to give the impression that Priapus always portrays men as mere playthings of other worldly creatures, the recipients of their desires. Centaurs, angels and robots alike are liable to take their turn to submit to being probed in a joyous celebration of unconventional lust and the triumph of the gay male spirit over the strongest of all comers. This is exemplified by this encounter where our muscular hero has cornered the Centaur on a rocky crag in it's own natural habitat (as imagined by an old master) and rather than slaying it, simply plunders it's mighty buttocks to demonstrate his superiority. However, this homo-erotic recasting of the ancient myth is something of a double edged sword, showing heroic endeavour coupled with ruthless, untrammelled lust. Erotic but disturbing.

12

Close Encounter 01

It's really all about men. In this picture there are aliens but they are a distant threat (or possibly observers). The stereotypical, muscular top, square-jawed and stubbled, oozes with sweat and earthy masculinity and blissfully wallows in the pleasure of penetration seemingly unaware of the aliens or his partner for that matter! The equally stereotypical bottom, more aesthetic-looking and slender-limbed, seems equally distracted, reclining artfully with a cool, serious look outwards towards us. Only his curling toes reveal an erotic response to his partner's substantial presence inside him. Is this proud defiance in the face of the enemy (alien or otherwise)?

This acrobatic pose is probably beyond most of us but successfully portrays the elegant curves of the male body and the inherent beauty of man on man sex, beyond mere animal excitement.

Flowing through Priapus's pictures is a love of men and a sense of sex as an important moment, adventurous, full of portent and sometimes slightly scary. He shows gay men as confident, sensual and sometimes bored but not fearful Our heroes, prime specimens of manhood, come face to face with creatures (fictional, mythical and extinct) whose great strength and size is matched by their fearsome appearance and sexual appetite, but they meet that challenge with bravery and inquisitive confidence

There's a lightness of touch, gentleness and humour that is quite uplifting. His dreamlike images blurring the boundary between reality and artistic representation not only idealise masculine love but make wider statements about the essence of sex and erotic feeling and as such seem to me to have a significance that goes beyond sexy attractiveness.

13

Adjustment Bureau 02

Sadly Priapus' blog (referenced on the images I have shown) has gone, but you can still see a substantial archive of his work at Telemachus12. In fact I understand that the collection is currently being extended with a number of new galleries. 
. 

In sections of this site Priapus demonstrates how he assembles his actors from ingredients culled from real modern porn stars. Models acquire muscular bodies of perfect proportions and sexual organs which are always impressively large and erect without being ridiculous. He's like a latter day Baron Frankenstein, plundering the archives of porn to create his own beings, thereby achieving not only the feat of bringing a new life into existence but investing it with striking beauty too. The fact that the actors in these fanciful erotic dramas have recognisable faces adds a frisson extra spice for the viewer.
.

I am reminded of the work of Baron and Borg who also create imaginary scenes with assemblies of people, artifacts and settings. Their results are astonishingly life-like tableaux of men in captivity, suffering pain and torment. Priapus doesn't go down that path but his manipulation of characters to perform for erotic effect has inherent undertones of domination and series titles like 'Temple of Doom' hint at dramas that the images don't quite express. There is a niggling feeling of the artist groping towards something darker and deeper but we can only wonder what has been left unsaid.

~

This is the last of my articles on Priapus, for more of his work
I recommend a visit to Priapus' Gallery at Telemachus12

Priapus of Milet - 3

7

Decamerone 10

Statues and classical and mythological interests all coincide in this image, which is based on the famous sculpture of Laocoon and his sons being consumed by sea serpents. Personally I think the exclusion of the sons (unconvincingly muscular in the original) is an improvement. The live victim imprisoned by stone recasts the equally mythological story of the 'statue coming to life' in a highly original way (see also my A-Z entry on Sean Platter). I think it's fair to say that Priapus' melding of photography and art is not always totally successful at a technical level but there's a creative spark about these images that more than makes up for it.

8

Force of Nature 01

The snake, sensuously entwined around the human body is a classical forerunner of the modern tentacle 'genre', but the famous Japanese print of a woman being ravished by an octopus, The Dream of the Fisherman's Wife (1814) is even more pertinent and often reckoned to be a milestone in erotic art. Priapus provides us with a homo-erotic version of this idea in Force of Nature 01, draping the model with the real thing. I find the idea of the warm male body being enveloped by the grey, cold, clammy octopus quite thrilling.
.

Priapus draws out the erotic essence of tentacles, which is not their supposed penis-like quality, but their ability to express the overwhelming ecstasy of being touched, embraced - and indeed 'captured' - by another. The tentacles gently exploring the submissive body offered up to them seem purposeful and believable. Priapus is equally true to the anatomy of the creature by not showing it's mouth, which is located underneath the body, so we can't see what it is up to, we can only infer it from Blake's expression. I imagine that a greater familiarity with octopus anatomy increases the initial erotic impact of this image no end, but it doesn't really matter, because what we lose in explicitness is made up for by an overpowering erotic sensuality.

9

Close Encounter 09

Close Encounter 09 has a more 'conventional' approach to erotic tentacles, assigning them to a technologically advanced, alien life form seemingly able to morph it's limbs into crusty-looking dildos or penis-eating long-cocks at will. But instead of employing the usual approach of bodice ripping and forcible restraint followed by ruthless forensic probing, this tentacle creature gently cradles and seduces his human subject, who shows no fear or anger but merely the normal degree of concern one would expect on encountering such a novel experience. There's no evidence of coercion, no shredded remains of clothes (or spacesuit) which lends an air of mutual exploration to this particular close encounter.

10

Close Encounter 10

Close Encounter 10 takes this idea to it's logical conclusion with a truly fearsome, dragon-like alien creature descending with fire and brimstone to arouse and take his lounging man who acquiesces to this assault with calmness and even affection. Would that all men were this obliging! These images show confident insights into the nature of sexual adventure and submissive sex.

Part 4

Priapus of Milet - 2

4

Heavenly Creatures 02

Continuing the heavenly theme in glorious style, I think Michaelangelo would have loved these naughty, young angels. Their sweeping, gold encrusted wings suggest that they normally have weightier duties than those they are attending to here. Religious allusions crop up elsewhere in Priapus work (for example in altar-like triptychs). I suppose it might be seen as subversive but it seems to me that he is simply commandeering it's traditional artistic language and mythology to express homosexual ideals but without any sense of mockery or satire and steering clear of core, spiritual motifs such as the crucifix.

5

Heavenly Creatures 15

In fact, he gives the same wry, mismatch treatment to the non-religious Eros/Cupid character, transforming the childlike youth of mythology into a beefy man who has outgrown his wings and is seemingly more intent on gratifying himself than spreading love. The arrow poised indecisively above Blake Riley's back (shall I? shan't I?) could be a rather spiky comment on the transitory nature of gay love and lust, echoing the sentiments expressed more emotionally by Harry Bush with his dangerous cupids. There's also a strange element of threat or punishment (perhaps domination?) here, a feature which is often present in Priapus' work.

6

Temple of Doom 01

There's a mythical element in Temple of Doom 01 too. The statue of the slaying of the minotaur depicts the brutal defeat of animal strength, and it's prescence here associates virility with the men below. Down there it seems the struggle is over, the muscular warrior has already established his ascendency and does not even have to leave his throne to taste the fruits of victory which are being offered to him on a plate as it were, in a highly submissive way. Once again there is that sense of power and domination. You will see statues in many other works by Priapus, seemingly observing the action or commenting on it.

go to Part 3

Priapus of Milet - 1

This artist burst upon my erotic art world in 2011 like a shooting star, briefly displaying his brilliance before abruptly disappearing. Fortunately he left behind the fruits of many years work, a legacy of great interest and beauty.

1

Temple of Doom 04

Priapus uses photo-manipulation, typically creating stylishly-copulating, masculine couples and placing them in striking, often classical, settings. He seems to be directing the erotic unions of perfect males like actors in a great play.

We live in a world flooded with images of men having sex together and these rather base endeavours do produce exceptionally beautiful images from time to time, I featured a pair recently. A sceptic might think these are simply the fortuitous convergence of beautiful bodies and camera angles - a perverse manifestation of the 'monkeys writing Shakespeare' theory, but more likely they are the result of intentional, artistic direction. Either way, the photo manipulator faces a real challenge to create erotic constructs that are original and stylish enough to differentiate them as art, but Priapus makes out a good case.

2

Decamerone 01

There is a self-conscious 'arty-ness' about his work as he shamelessly plunders the world of the great masters and modern art for ideas on imagery and presentation, including Pierre et Gilles in this example, but to me at least the end result is original and interesting, experimentation rather than copying. There is a sense of of gay love being given the respect it deserves by association with this great artistic legacy.

3

Heavenly Creatures 12

Inevitably traditional sources lead Priapus to mythological and religious subject matter. The 'Heavenly Creatures' series features heavyweight angels, who are muscular not only in physique but with mighty wings as well in classic renaissance style. They are shown copulating on painted ceilings or descending to earth to take mortal men in their beds where their wings become a striking expression of masculine, protective power and purity - truly the man of your dreams!

Go to Part 2