Queen

Gay Dictionary Series, "Queen" (8" x8") January 20, 2012

Not the rock band – instead it’s another in the Gay Dictionary Series.  I used two nostalgic images of rather obviously partnered gay men from the Website, Homo History:  Reclaiming Our Past and Ruffling Some Feathers.  I also found a paperback book, Idylls of the Queens, Greenleaf Classics, Inc., first edition (1968), value, $124.00 at Amazon.  Yes, that was $124.00!  So, I do not own a copy, just used the image, buried in paint and repeated different sizes so as to telescope the image creating an illusion of hidden depth.  Hopefully that illusion at the center of this montage will help to lead the viewer into the painting.  The glittery orange-red band around the perimeter of the artwork is made from a photograph that I took of glittery cloth that I have processed in photoshop to be of many shades and hues.  There are other images hidden in the layers of paint.  Can you find them?  I don’t feel the artwork is as successful as most of the others in the series.  However, artists are notorious for being dissatisfied with their own finished work, and viewers may surprise.

Queen as a stereotype of a flamboyant gay male has been around since the 1930's.  There are many subtypes including  drag queen, bean queen, size queen, and many others.  A detailed history of queen in all its various permutations can be found in Wikipedia.