Rick Chris: Beef Men

Rick was born and grew up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. His higher education included the arts program at the Fine Arts school of the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee. Additional education was at the Milwaukee Area Technical College, the Colorado Institute of Art and various in-house corporate training programs.

 
Blond Stable Hand, 2002, Acrylic

( more pics )

Early on, Rick provided some cartooning for the GPU News, a publication for a pioneering gay organization in Milwaukee, Gay Peoples Union. Some years later, Rick moved to Colorado, working as a staff artist and technical illustrator for aerospace, defense and research companies, including one of the largest defense and aerospace contractors in the United States. Working as a tech illustrator influenced Rick's fine art, steering him towards a precise realism, an influence which can be seen in Rick's work today.

In the early part of the 21st century, Rick established rickchris.com and began to concentrate his work on producing male and gay themed artwork. A series of events also led him to begin the serialization on the web site of a gay detective novel, A PERSON IN A POSTION OF TRUST, featuring a gay detective named Lynn Gordon (Beef) Matson. The story attracted a following with readers who developed a fondness for the detective. Currently, a second book in the series, CATCH A FALLING STAR, is in the works.

"Among my favorite artists are Rip Colt, Delmas Howe, Norman Rockwell, Bev Doolitte and some of the contemporary Japanese illustrators such as Hideaki Kodama. Rip Colt was a very good illustrator of the male form in addition to his now famous photography and I purchased some prints of his illustrations in the early 70's and was determined to draw just like him. I admire Rockwell because of his craftsmanship and his ability to tell a story in his paintings. I like Howe's imagery which seems to jump out of his paintings and the hearty Southwestern spirit which thrives in his paintings. My own art was influenced by my years as a technical and commercial illustrator which demanded that I produce realistic illustrations of things which often times did not yet exist. I got to be pretty good at this and finally it became a second nature for me to be able to produce images which appear photo realistic but yet are purely fantasy. Sometimes it is an enjoyable challenge for me to see just how much of a realistic image I can produce from an idea and my pencil sketches." Rick Chris

http://www.rickchris.com/

More Artists at my website: http://www.elisarolle.com/, My Ramblings/Art

Remastering Jerna by Ann Somerville

Someone could wonder if Remastering Jerna is a romance, and truth be told the publisher doesn't list it as one. When I started it, even I had my doubts, the story of Jerna seemed without hope, harsh and without pity, and love had a very little role. At least the passionate love, since, on the other hand, Jerna loves very much his family, a wife and two daughters, but I saw little passion in it. So for a good share of the book, I remained with my question: if and when I would have found the "romance" part of the book. The if was a legitimate doubt, because nor the author or the publisher promised it to me. Due to all this, you can imagine how glad I was when I finally found THE love I was searching, but, as you can understand, in the end this is not a romance, but more the life journey of Jerna, who starts as a teacher and ends as the taught.

Jerna was a submissive for a Master he respected, but I'm not sure he really loved. Even if the Master, Kimis, fulfilled Jerna's need to be dominated, it didn't satisfy his desire to have a family, to have child, and all the other ordinary things of life. Life with Kimis was mundane and good, but not complete. Jerna left Kimis to marry Tyrme, a good woman who, in all the novel, will always have a positive role; but to me Tyrme seems more a good friend, a loving companion, but not a lover. To Jerna's eyes, Tyrme is a whole with their daughters and family, when Jerna is torn apart from them, never once he says he misses Tyrme as individual, but instead he always mourns for his family. With this, I'm not saying that Jerna doesn't love Tyrme, I'm only saying that, as Kimis didn't fulfil every Jerna's need, so it doesn't Tyrme. In a way, Jerna passed from a Master to another, Tyrme is a very authoritative woman, quite the one who leads the family, but he hasn't still found the right one.

When Jerna is framed with a crime he didn't commit, he is forced to divorce from Tyrme and sent to prison. Jerna is a strong man, even if a submissive, and he faces the trial of prison and all the violence inside (also rape), with a strength that seems impossible. It's not a body strength, more a strong will and maybe also something that he learnt from his training as submissive. From the prison Jerna ends to be an endured servant in a brothel, and this means also being a whore: in his mind Jerna doesn't see it as a betray towards Tyrme, since it's only his body involved, not his mind, and above all not his heart.

All above changes when Jerna meets Ria; at first Ria is an untrained Master, who in his fight to find an outlet to his desire to dominate makes more damage than nothing. Ria is not a bad man, but he is not trained. The first bad experience between Ria and Jerna, I believe, is not all Ria's fault. It's true, he is untrained, but Jerna, from his side, has a bit of an aloof attitude, something he has always had from the first. Nor with Kimis or with Tyrme, whom in a way Jerna considers Master, Jerna has ever let this attitude down; he submits with his body, but deep inside, I think he still believes to be superior to them. Same attitude with Ria, even if maybe in this case he is more right than not. Anyway this leads to Jerna to agree to be Ria's teacher, to teach him how to be a good Master. Jerna starts it thinking to teach something to Ria, but I think that, in the end, also Jerna will learn a lesson, and maybe for the first time, he will find the right Master... one who he himself trained to the role. So yes, if someone was wondering why the "remastering Jerna" of the title, when apparently it was Jerna who was remastering Ria, this is the answer: both Ria than Jerna will learn that it's not enough to know how to do a BDSM scene, to have a real D/s relationship it's needed something more.

http://www.pdpublishing.com/jernaendpage.html

Amazon: Remastering Jerna

Reading List:

http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bottom.php?tag=reading list&view=elisa.rolle

Remastering Jerna by Ann Somerville

Someone could wonder if Remastering Jerna is a romance, and truth be told the publisher doesn't list it as one. When I started it, even I had my doubts, the story of Jerna seemed without hope, harsh and without pity, and love had a very little role. At least the passionate love, since, on the other hand, Jerna loves very much his family, a wife and two daughters, but I saw little passion in it. So for a good share of the book, I remained with my question: if and when I would have found the "romance" part of the book. The if was a legitimate doubt, because nor the author or the publisher promised it to me. Due to all this, you can imagine how glad I was when I finally found THE love I was searching, but, as you can understand, in the end this is not a romance, but more the life journey of Jerna, who starts as a teacher and ends as the taught.

Jerna was a submissive for a Master he respected, but I'm not sure he really loved. Even if the Master, Kimis, fulfilled Jerna's need to be dominated, it didn't satisfy his desire to have a family, to have child, and all the other ordinary things of life. Life with Kimis was mundane and good, but not complete. Jerna left Kimis to marry Tyrme, a good woman who, in all the novel, will always have a positive role; but to me Tyrme seems more a good friend, a loving companion, but not a lover. To Jerna's eyes, Tyrme is a whole with their daughters and family, when Jerna is torn apart from them, never once he says he misses Tyrme as individual, but instead he always mourns for his family. With this, I'm not saying that Jerna doesn't love Tyrme, I'm only saying that, as Kimis didn't fulfil every Jerna's need, so it doesn't Tyrme. In a way, Jerna passed from a Master to another, Tyrme is a very authoritative woman, quite the one who leads the family, but he hasn't still found the right one.

When Jerna is framed with a crime he didn't commit, he is forced to divorce from Tyrme and sent to prison. Jerna is a strong man, even if a submissive, and he faces the trial of prison and all the violence inside (also rape), with a strength that seems impossible. It's not a body strength, more a strong will and maybe also something that he learnt from his training as submissive. From the prison Jerna ends to be an endured servant in a brothel, and this means also being a whore: in his mind Jerna doesn't see it as a betray towards Tyrme, since it's only his body involved, not his mind, and above all not his heart.

All above changes when Jerna meets Ria; at first Ria is an untrained Master, who in his fight to find an outlet to his desire to dominate makes more damage than nothing. Ria is not a bad man, but he is not trained. The first bad experience between Ria and Jerna, I believe, is not all Ria's fault. It's true, he is untrained, but Jerna, from his side, has a bit of an aloof attitude, something he has always had from the first. Nor with Kimis or with Tyrme, whom in a way Jerna considers Master, Jerna has ever let this attitude down; he submits with his body, but deep inside, I think he still believes to be superior to them. Same attitude with Ria, even if maybe in this case he is more right than not. Anyway this leads to Jerna to agree to be Ria's teacher, to teach him how to be a good Master. Jerna starts it thinking to teach something to Ria, but I think that, in the end, also Jerna will learn a lesson, and maybe for the first time, he will find the right Master... one who he himself trained to the role. So yes, if someone was wondering why the "remastering Jerna" of the title, when apparently it was Jerna who was remastering Ria, this is the answer: both Ria than Jerna will learn that it's not enough to know how to do a BDSM scene, to have a real D/s relationship it's needed something more.

http://www.pdpublishing.com/jernaendpage.html

Amazon: Remastering Jerna

Reading List:

http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bottom.php?tag=reading list&view=elisa.rolle

In Their Youth: Early Portraits by Greg Gorman

A photographer I like very much has a coming soon art book, In Their Youth: Early Portraits. Only for the fact that he puts a beautiful and so young Rupert Everett on the cover, I would buy it!

In Their Youth: Early Portraits comprises over 200 of the California-based photographer's previously unpublished portraits from the last three decades, featuring famous actors shot when they were still unknown young men, from teen years into their early twenties.



Amazon: Greg Gorman: In Their Youth

"I decided to do a project that expressed my infatuation with male beauty," Gorman explains, "especially in terms of youth... the portraits don't have lots of backgrounds, they're straightforward. It's really about the person, not the elements. It boils down to the graphics of the individual more than the graphics of the setting." Gorman's intimate celebrity portraits hinge on the sense of his subjects' vulnerability. Here, famous young men are juxtaposed with photographs of promising unknowns: one of the first shots of Tom Cruise, for instance, shares a spread with some anonymous ephebe that Andy Warhol met at Studio 54.

Enjoy some of Greg Gorman's works:


Greg Gorman, David Michelak, Los Angeles, 1987

( Greg Gorman's works )

Greg Gorman discovered his calling after taking a borrowed camera to a Jimi Hendrix concert in 1968. In 1990, after producing images for over 20 years, he published his first book, Greg Gorman Volume One, which reveals his skills as a portraitist. Gorman has created innumerable unforgettable images (for instance, a 2000 portrait of Jeff Koons shows the artist perched on a filthy toilet, flanked by two leather-clad ladies). His work has been featured in ad campaigns and has been featured on the covers of a number of magazines, including Esquire, GQ, Interview, Vogue, Rolling Stone and Vanity Fair.

http://www.gormanphotography.com/

More Photographers at my website: http://www.elisarolle.com/, My Ramblings/Art