Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Dreams Of A Past Life








Note: All images and text (not specified) is copyrighted by Christopher Cushman. This site does not specify or denote the sexual orientation of any model and as such please post your comments accordingly.

Thursday, November 22, 2012

A Different Perspective









































I have followed Kehinde Wiley for a number of years... I have always found his work to be interesting and thought provoking. I recently purchased his book published by Rizzoli and I find myself even more entranced by his paintings and photographs. I am still processing what his work means to me and I am interested if any of you have thoughts...  please leave leave your thoughts as a post comment below!


By superimposing Art In America:

the opulent worlds of rulers and rappers, Wiley sought to visualize conventions for representing power in European portraiture on the surface of his paintings. Wiley recognized that “[t]he history of painting has been the history of those [powerful] men trying to position themselves in fields of power that are very defined and codified as a type of vocabulary that’s evolved over time…” The painter scripted black urban youth into this history in order to ripple its codified visual field. In so doing, he took care to represent his black male subjects in such way that they appear both within yet outside these defined vocabularies.


Wiley, by portraying his subjects within the conventions of portraiture but not carrying this through the entire painting, allows the illusion of portraiture to arise and then dissipate on the surface of the work. His figures inhabit the surface of the canvases, between visibility and invisibility. They appear both luminescent and transparent, statuesque and ephemeral, photorealist and abstract, present and absent: accidental inhabitants of history on the verge of disappearance.

-Krista Thompson, “The Sound of Life: Reflections on Art History in the Visual Culture of Hip-Hop”, The Art Bulletin, December, 2009












































































Note: All images and text (not specified) is copyrighted by Christopher Cushman. This site does not specify or denote the sexual orientation of any model and as such please post your comments accordingly.

Monday, November 12, 2012

Twenty Years Ago Today.....














































































Twenty years and I still remember this day.  We walked in the woods on that cool colorful fall day and quietly spent time together.  I loved our walks, I loved any time I could be with you.  I love that I took these photos and while I would have remembered this day as I remember so many others the photos transport me with ease to the fondest of those memories.

I love that you are happy today... Life was not always easy or kind to you in ways that I never experienced myself.   I learned so much during the days, months and years with you.  That can never be taken away from me or you.  I hope you feel the same.

Real love may change shape but never dies, never fades... lasts for ever... No matter the distance between us and the others in our life.   Thank You Aaron for this gift given twenty years ago today.







Note: All images and text (not specified) is copyrighted by Christopher Cushman. This site does not specify or denote the sexual orientation of any model and as such please post your comments accordingly.

Friday, November 09, 2012

Lincoln

I can't help but see a very direct connection between Abraham Lincoln's America and Barak Obama's America In the Steven Spielberg bio pic of the last 5 months of Lincoln's presidency.  Both contended with a severely polarized Country and government.  Lincoln had issued the emancipation proclamation nearly two years before his re-election to a second term. Winning a second term proved his mandate by the American people to abolish slavery and so the film takes on the passing of the 13th amendment as its framework for the next two and a half hours.  In many ways Obamas second term affords him a mandate to finish what he started.   The script was written by Tony Kushner famous for the Gay themed TV movie Angels in America. A script adapted by Doris Kearns Goodwin's best seller Team of Rivals: The political Genius of Abraham Lincoln.  Team of Rivals was a book read and taken to heart by Obama during his first election, resulting in his appointment of Hillary Clinton to Secretary of State even though they had been intense political rivals during the primaries.  Daniel Day-Lewis portrayal of Lincoln was well researched and implemented into a character easily beloved and for some feared.

Ive written several times about my distaste for revisionist history, specifically those who would negatively portray Lincoln's true intentions relative to slavery which was a most complicated knot to un do magnified even more by the horrors of the civil war where well over 600,000 people perished.   It is put into quite clear light in this movie of Lincoln's long term feelings about slavery and what he had to do with the right opportunities politically.  The man had a steadfast guile.
Had Lincoln lived I believe the 100 years of Jim Crow laws would have never manifested.. but we will never know and unfortunately the matter was left up to honorable men of another century to finish.

This was a great movie.   Spielberg's direction, John Williams Soundtrack and a cast of characters including a stunning job by Tommie Lee Jones rounded off this superb film!




Note: All images and text (not specified) is copyrighted by Christopher Cushman. This site does not specify or denote the sexual orientation of any model and as such please post your comments accordingly.

Monday, November 05, 2012

Cassidy!












Note: All images and text (not specified) is copyrighted by Christopher Cushman. This site does not specify or denote the sexual orientation of any model and as such please post your comments accordingly.