Hell Is Not Hot

In case you haven’t been following along with my latest posts, I’m working on a series of prints that will be bound into a book, called God Is Our Witness. Although a lot of my work is loosely narrative, it’s different to work with an actual book in mind. I have only a vague outline as I proceed, and I know already that some of the prints I’ve made since January will not actually make it into the book. But I’m just going along with the flow as it appears to me and I’m looking forward to being surprised by the ending.







These three prints were made as a group. If you look closely you can see that the background and snow pattern are the same in each print. I made 24 impressions of the basic background, then made 3 different versions of forest and figure combinations. These three prints will be scattered throughout the first section/chapter of the book, which is basically focused on alienation and loneliness.

My mother made a comment to me the other day expressing worry that I'm working with this topic, dredging up old pains and sorrows. I understand her concern, and in fact it hasn't always been comfortable for me, but as we all know, the story of being gay in America at the turn of the 21st century is an “It Gets Better” story. You can’t tell an “It Gets Better” story without the bad part or else there’s nothing to get better.