101 Uses for Belts - No 24 Artistic Expression

Image redacted 

Refer to Artistic Expression

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For other posts in the '101 belts' series,

 click on the 'Belts' label below

 

 

Art by Steve Masters 2

Steve Masters - Al Fresco

 If the convict image that topped Part 1 of this article is one of Master's most memorable, this must be the most intriguing. This is the best quality copy I have of it, but it's not the most complete, a version I have assembled from two other sources (below) shows more of the composition at both the top and the bottom.

Steve Masters - Al Fresco (extended)

Looking at this expanded version, you get the feeling that there's probably even more to see in the artist's original. The fragment at the top seems chopped, but it does seem to be the uppermost floor, because it doesn't have a staircase leading further upwards.

But what does it mean? At one level, you might see it as simply a vehicle for figure studies. Most of Master's compositions have that 'posed' quality, with limited interactions between the characters. In this picture, the men interact with the architecture more than they do with each other. However, one window does show a couple who might have just had sex, is this an imagined house of boys, then? 

At the other end of the scale, you might see this as an allegory of the gay lifestyle. Bedsit boys, living mostly solitary lives and constantly looking out at more showy men who have the courage to strut the fire-escape in public view. Close by, but out of reach, and ultimately just as trapped as they are, in the gay ghetto. That subtext would have had some resonance in the early sixties, when many gay men really were trapped and the gulf between the closet and the secret, 'out' world was far more substantial than it is today.

Steve Masters - Cubicles (my title)

 If you are inclined to dismiss this interpretation, this picture might make you think again. Nine men in panels depicting toilet cubicles, and one of them is having sex if you look closely. None seem to be actually using the toilet. 

This image depicts the wide variety of men that haunted restrooms. The original was clearly coloured, as many of Master's images were. and that would have enhanced the sense of variety - in dress at least. 

It's intriguing though that the individual portraits are cropped so severely. In places, it creates the illusion that the men are having sex with each other, with an impressive daisy chain in the middle. The overlaps in the outer panels create the same effect in a different way.

Squeezing the images together does create a sense of fleeting visits and of the individuals merely registering as an impression. But there's a negative flip to that, which echoes the suggestion of isolation and loneliness in 'Al Fresco'. 

The artist Rex also played with the cubicle device later on. His images contain gay men actually interacting and having sex in their own partitions (which are closer to hotel rooms or bath house cubicles than public toilets). As individuals, they have much stronger identities. Both men are reflecting their times, of course.

 

Steve Masters - Rock Climbers (1962)

A young man is helped across a crevasse to join his companion, who strikes a godlike pose. It's a scene reminiscent of renaissance art. There's a calmness about this picture and a complete absence of innuendo, although their nudity (contrasted with residual clothing and kit) does suggest a sexual context. The shedding of all clothes means there's none of the showy display that characterises so much of Masters' work.   

 

The elements of creativity and design which dominate the previous images can be seen differently here, with a relatively simple composition embellished with what appear to be fragments of commercial marble images, such as might be seen on kitchen worktops or tiles. It creates an effect of a jagged, alien reality as the background and obstacle to the climbing. 

 

 

Steve Masters - Bacchanal

 

This image has a similar, striking design featuring realistic marbling, but it couldn't be more different to Rock Climbers. The design effects almost overwhelm the whole composition. 

 

When your eyes focus, it's dominated by an image of Bacchus with a dragon headed snake between his legs, discharging his lust from its mouth into a pool. The snake seems to be actually entering his body at the rear. An incongruous cupid rides behind him, seemingly trying to restrain the creature (or simply distract unwelcome prudes). 

 

Oblivious of them, a group of naked sailors loll drunkenly on the edge of the pool, full of a milky white substance, which probably isn't asses milk. (Shades of Stephen's 'Troopship'!). The sailors are subtly connected by hands and overlaps into a chain of shared, sexual sensuality. 

 

At the very back, another humanoid creature sits cross-legged, presiding over the activities. He's shaded in a different tone to the sailors, I suspect it's a different colour in the original image, to distinguish him from them. A disembodied head like a gargoyle hovers in front of his groin, obscuring it from view. It looks like a device added later to sanitise the image. 

 

I suppose this image simply expresses the view that gay debauchery is (reassuringly) sanctioned by the Gods, nay it's directed by them. Despite the difficult presentation of the subject, its sheer complexity is impressive. The figure of Bacchus and his snake is a homoerotic gem.

 

Steve Masters - Watching Men (my title)

This earlier piece shows the same interest in placing men into places with striking design features. The less exotic chequerboard patterns show a link to contemporary commercial art, although I can't quote chapter and verse on that. There's no attempt to construct a story line, but there's a very clever message... 

 

In the background, we see a couple of attractive, scantily-clad men engaged in healthy exercise. Another two are getting undressed for a bath (together? really?).  In the foreground, a fifth man in a jockstrap sits on a platform watching them, almost furtively. He seems a lonely, excluded figure, rather like the souls looking out of windows in 'Al Fresco' - and perhaps like the figure crossing the divide in 'Rock Climbers'.

 

 

Steve Masters - Boot Clean

Words are the striking feature of this image, with enough gay innuendos and puns to satisfy the most playful mind (soles rimmed?) These signs refer us back to the key character, who we see presenting himself - alone - and in a cubicle(!)  Not exactly trapped, though - or is he? 

 

The multiple offers of service around him are supplemented and clarified by the fact he's holding his cock in his hand. Masters has cloaked him in conventionality by draping a fashionable cardigan over his shoulders, an appealing connection for some.

 

The hint of a fairground connection can be seen in other work by this artist, in Part 3. 

 

Steve Masters -Handy Man

Words serve a very different purpose here. At first, we only see a fit, muscular man with a revealing shirt and a suitcase. We can visualise him arriving in a new place, looking for work and somewhere to live. So far, so very homoerotic. 

 

Then through the blizzard of words we see he has no right arm and no, it's not just one of Masters' design flourishes. He's a veteran, returning as a casualty of war. Immediately, those sexy innuendos and offers around him take on a bitter irony. His face acknowledges the reality of being able-bodied and yet not. He, too, is alone and isolated.

 

This is 1961, the year that American involvement and casualties in Vietnam began to escalate. With the Korean War a recent memory, Masters seems to anticipate and protest the inevitable consequences and the toll it would take on so many young men.

 

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Part 3 of this series looks at Masters' less intense work.

 

Read Part 1 of this article  

Art by Steve Masters

Steve Masters - Wolf (1961)

This is one of Masters' most memorable works, imagining life in a prison. There's a strongly masculine flavour and a clear sense of who's who. Overlapping hands establish a connection between the prisoners (illicit for it's time). It can be interpreted as menacing ownership and exploitation - or secret tenderness. 

Masters often used words in his images to spin homosexual puns, but I confess the significance of 'Machine Shop' escapes me. 

 

Steve Masters - Convict (1961)

This convict image shows the flip side of the coin, with a heavily manacled convict being toyed with by the prison guards. It's from the same year (and the same thought process, judging by the prisoner's sexy, sagging pants in both pictures). 

The styling here is closer to Masters' trademark style, with geometric, conflicting and seemingly random lines creating a sketchiness (e.g. the guard's chest) but also a clothes layering effect with the suggestion of a bulging pouch inside the Guard's trousers. 

The ambiguity - is the prisoner expected to lick the Guard's feet or to service that bulge? - is reflected in the second guard's reaction, look at his left hand is doing.

 

Steve Masters -Bulkhead (1961)

This picture was often cropped in its day to focus on the two sailors in the background, undressing and hanging up clothes on a washing line. That playful cameo is framed by two more sailors in the foreground playing out a more serious game. 

At the right, a bare ass tar who stands, arms folded, as if he's waiting for his pants to dry on the line. He looks round, embarrassed and uncomfortable. It's as if he senses he's being eyed up and is uncomfortable about it. Below him, another sailor lounges. He winks at us conspiratorially, as if his catch is in his sights, but he's biding his time to land him. The title encapsulates his thoughts, one man's bulk, another man's head, an abbreviated pun. 

 The lounger still has his pants on, but the fly wide is wide open, revealing plunging abs and sexual intent. There's a substantial arousal within, which doesn't take much spotting, and there's an illusion of teasing detail in the folds. In the complexities of this drawing, these pants double up as very brief shorts, looking through different eyes.

Steve Masters - Fisherman and Frogman

 Steve Masters often drew men in bodysuits and tight-fitting clothes, so the 60s vogue for underwater exploration and adventure (Sea Hunt etc) naturally interested him. He's juxtaposed it here with another favoured theme - fishermen. 

 

In this curious image, the hands of the two men are again superimposed, establishing a mutual connection via the phallic, harpoon gun. The frogman's giant catch has a vaguely phallic look too, but there's nothing vague about the fisherman straddling the rudder of his boat. Not only is the post jammed suggestively between his cheeks, the tiller arm (unseen by us) sticks out between his legs towards the frogman.  The symbolism can be taken further to embrace the function of the tiller - determining the direction the fisherman wishes to take.

 

The Frogman's suit is decorated with a snazzy 60s design, which Masters generally did. That modernity contrasts with the timeless sexiness of the fisherman's skimpy singlet and drooping pants (with rolled up bottoms as per Royale fishermen for example). Low rise trousers were another 60s fad, a sexy rebellion against the high waists that had defined men's fashion for as long as anyone could remember. It culminated in a race to have the shortest zip, only 1" long.

 

Steve Masters - Scuttlebutt (1962)

Rough fishermen and a 'sailor' collide in this image too. It looks like it might be a fashion shoot being conducted on a working jetty. Despite his practical-looking sea boots and jeans, the sailor strikes a catwalk pose* which accentuates his backside. A seagull balances comically on his shoulder, presenting its backside threateningly.

 

* pre-dates the familiar Jim French/Colt image (below) 

Colt - Sailor with Ventilation (my title)

 The fishermen just ignore him, smoking and eating fruit from a phallic arrangement in their lunch boxes. The nearest one is depicted in a very traditional manner, with boots and cockleshell hat. His straightness is challenged by the words on the box he is sitting on. The other, smoking a pipe and with his captain's cap jauntily canted, looks more mature, except that his muscle vest is tight with snazzy 60s flashes and a design suggestive of a nautical Hell's Angels. He's totally naked below the waist - apart from tattoos. He has attracted the sailor's attention, they seem to be exchanging 'looks'.

 

The photographer watches all this closely. He is the modern equivalent of the artist drawing his model, a common device in gay images of this era to legitimise the admiration of a naked man. It may represent Masters himself, he was a fashion photographer.

"Scuttlebutt" means rumours or gossip, originating from a nautical term for the water cask on a ship where sailors would gather to drink and exchange information. The pun on butt is obvious with three on display in the picture, scuttle meaning 'to sink' is a sexy connotation but slightly obscure.

 

~ 

 

View another Scott Master's fisherman at mitchmen 

 

~ 

 

Steve Masters - False Alarm

More sailors at play. This isn't a particularly good copy, but it's an interesting example of Masters' visual innuendos. Here a naked matelot has been called upon to put out a fire by two of his shipmates. They seem to be giving a novice the ship's initiation rites, because the idea of a fire bucket (full of water or sand) catching fire is as ridiculous as the notorious glass hammer or tartan paint used to haze apprentices. 

 

However, the naive young novice has little choice and clumsily feeds the hose between his legs like a snake. The nozzle ends up looking like an extension of his dick. Aligned with the open fly of one of his tormentors, it also looks as if he's jerking him off, with the resulting fountain (not looking very much like water) dousing the fire. Another sailor watches the fun through a porthole. 

 

 

Steve Masters - Reveille (my title)

This looks like another hazing ritual. A young military recruit is suddenly awakened by a bugle blast and finds his bed surrounded by men in strange, sheer bodysuits, He looks around for help or an avenue of escape but one of them, (totally naked like him), is sitting on his legs, so he can't move. 

 

These pranksters have moved his bed in the night and placed it outside the captain's office. Inside, we glimpse miliaria - and a coil of rope that bodes ill for him if he doesn't co-operate. He is ordered to lay his head on the pillow, where it will be inches away from a dangling cock. The remaining two men are poised to explore his ass.

 

More Steve Masters in Part 2 

 

Steve Master's Biography  

 

Mike Miksche photo album 

Captive Combatants by BedVC太郎

BedVC - Combatants Lined Up, No 1

 I began this series of posts with some milking factory situations where the donors were all dressed in tight-fitting, bodysuits. The artist calls these characters 'Combatants' and they appear in dozens of his images. They seem to have a drone-like personality. Those above seem to be undergoing some sort of conditioning. There doesn't seem to be any physical restraint of them, but it doesn't look as if they are free to leave, either. There's evidence to suggest they don't want to, not just yet! 

 

 

BedVC - Combatants Lined Up, No 34

 The sense of treatment being administered is more intense here, with the men immobilised and bathed in violet light, requiring goggles to be worn. They are not so much suited up as enclosed in a tight, rubbery sheath. Multiple straps ensure an exceptional level of restraint, but one part of their bodies seems to be rebelling. An uprising, you might say. 

See also 'Muscular Zentai Men in Restraint, No 24' at 'X'

 

BedVC - Transformation into a Combatant No 13

The recruitment process for Combatants seems to be quite a daunting affair. You might imagine that putting on the suit for the first time would be quite exciting with the promise of being converted into a muscle hunk. This guy looks as if he's just found out it's not reversible. The gag-like face covering prevents him exercising his right to change his mind. The supervisor's evil grin suggests he's seen it all before.

 Full image

BedVC - Transformation into a Combatant No 50

 I assume that these volunteers have not just been dragged off the street, but seeing these images, you have to wonder. Or perhaps the glossy brochure glossed over just how challenging the transformation process is. The clingy bodysuit channelling the adaption must feel very exposing for a young man unused to public display. I dare say, there are members of staff that take advantage of the novices helplessness.

 

BedVC - Transformation into a Combatant No 63

Resistance is futile, but it's nice to see the new boy trying, it shows the sort of inner qualities the Combatants need. It'll end up safely corralled into total obedience, of course. His growing awareness of that outcome fuels his protests 

You'll see from the title that there are many other variants on this theme at the artist's Pixiv site (see foot of post). I'm not at liberty to illustrate the full extent here, let's just say that no blood is spilled, but other fluids are. If you plan to explore his offerings, I suggest you take a picnic and some tissues (or your preferred, mopping up material).

 

BedVC - Transformation of a Villain No 35

 

The rigours of the Combatant transformation process and the conforming nature of the men it delivers make it ideal for reeducating villains. Their inbuilt aggression can be re-channelled into useful combat qualities. This one's vain attempt to burst out of the restricting suit, that is also his ticket to eternal obedience, is quite symbolic. It's also rather sexy. His bulging lower body parts here are a little 'in yer face', so I've sanitised it as a precaution, there's a link below to the real thing. 

original image 

I've done the same thing with some others further on.

 

BedVC - Combatants Compressed for Storage No 15

It won't have escaped your attention that the men emerge from the transformation procedure with their reproductive urges intact, nay enhanced. Once converted, therefore, the men are not sent off to barracks where they might be free to get into all sorts of testosterone-draining mischief. Instead, they are vacuum wrapped in pairs and put into storage, where their tensions and aggression can simmer indefinitely. 

 

In the image above, you can see that the proximity of a package-mate has raised an embarrassing sweat for one susceptible conscript.

The titling has lost a bit in the translation.

 

 

BedVC - Combatants Compressed for Storage No 44

 

This method allows entire platoons to be held in reserve for a rainy day at the front. I imagine their shared anticipation of being upgraded to black suits and unleashed on the enemy will be constantly nourished by the usual bawdy, barracks room chatter.  

 

original image

BedVC - Factory Wrapped No 44

The same technique can also be applied to disciplinary matters. A combatant guilty of misdirecting his carefully cultivated aggression gets a spell of solitary confinement so he can work it off in private. The comedown in isolation after that, with no warmth from his comrades to console him, is worse than a cold shower

original image

 

 

BedVC - Vacuum Packed No 17

 This wacky image is the natural extension of that thought process. It gives a whole new meaning to Army Surplus. It looks like this unwanted pair are en route to the Supermarket meat counter, where they will sit alongside the pork chops. Of course, there will be people who complain about the excessive packaging, but no-one wants meat that could have been interfered with.

 

 

BedVC - Two Guys Tied Together in Zentai Suits

 

 It's already obvious that the tight design of these bodysuits causes them to seek out every crevice in a man's body and bring out it's more prominent features. At the same time, their tactile qualities have a sensitising effect on said prominences. As a result, Combatants are normally stored side by side to avoid undue mutual stimulation. 

 

Tying two men together, face to face, therefore, seems to be a highly advanced form of training. Or interrogation, perhaps. "Spill the beans, Sergeant, or your buddy gets in the neck" (or somewhere like that). An exquisite torture that some people are very good at.

 

original image 

 

There's an even more exquisite buddy torture at 'X'

The Factory of Self-Fellatio, No 32

 

Bed VC - Chris Redfield Bound

Chris Redfield and suspension bondage are two more favourites of this artist. Unsurprisingly, his familiar uniform has been transformed into a rubber equivalent by BedVC producing lots of manly sweat. The suspension keeps him out of the reach of most of his enemies, but it also means that his tackle protrudes. A well-placed rope ensures that it dangles and dribbles (hence my adults only sticker, which is painfully ripped off in the link below).

 

original image 

 

 

 

BedVC - Chris Zentai Bound

It's almost inevitable that Chris would be forced to don a Zentai suit. It's body flattering qualities seem to have had their usual effect on him. The highlights on his underside are brilliant, although you get the nasty impression that there's a fire raging below, which he's about to be lowered into.

 

The suit's tendency to arouse also seems unimpaired in the uncensored image (linked below). However, it doesn't seem to have transformed Chris into a more formidable Combatant than he usually is. It hasn't made him obedient and docile either, fortunately, but he's still in a fix. 

 

The full image is brilliant!

original image 

 

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AI Images by BedVC太郎 who is on 'X'@exMtNHpo4oF9lzO

and on pixiv as user 4607635

 

Mitchell's Roofers

Based on the AI-images of 'dures annees'

 

Part of my series of collected images which visualise a world where men have to wear short shorts whatever their age or job. 

 

The Roofing Profession comes under the spotlight here. 

 They suffer the inevitable consequences.

Some, but not all, of these images have been published at 'X' 

 

Roofers - 1

Being in the public eye was uncomfortable for some.

 

Roofers - 2

 

Others made the best of it.

 

Roofers - 3

Not everyone was free to make their own choices.

 

 

Roofers - 4

 

Roofers - 5

Roofers - 6

C'est la vie!

More AI Art by BedVC太郎

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