| Leatherman's Journal |
| The 31 paintings that make up the "Leatherman's Journal" series by Morgan Monceaux (Sir Nagrom) signal a major shift in his work, both in terms of their theme and in terms of his technique. Not a journal in the strict sense, the series was created between 1998 and 2002 and represents a multi-dimensional exploration of Gay and Lesbian Leather Sexuality, with the intention of showing an aspect hardly ever explored in the typical depictions of this "Outsider" form of sexual behavior: its extremely sensual nature. While the explicit sexuality of the bulk of the works in the series may shock the average viewer, and lead many to dismiss them as nothing more than pornographic fantasies, the paintings are actually a celebration of life as it is lived by those who are unafraid to explore the "underside" of their psycho-physical nature by abandoning the standard taboos. What is striking about these paintings is their paradoxically joyful nature, the result not only of the self-contained demeanor of the subjects so typical of Monceaux's Naive Primitive style but also the rich use of color, and the unexpected abundance of flowers, both of which are rather a-typical for this genre, which tends to focus on line art and contextual abstraction. Morgan's floral motif ranges from the thematic depiction of a rose in "La Vie en Rose +/or the Letter" to the field of irises in "The Three Graces", a work showing three Dykes representing the Leather mantras "To Serve, To Obey, and To Love", and to the focal presence of a large vase of white tulips in "The Leatherman's Journal". The painting "The Calla Lilies are in Bloom again" puts one in mind of a similar photo by Robert Maplethorpe, another devotee of Outsider Sex; and the inclusion of the painting in this series underscores the sexual symbolism of the floral theme as a whole. In a move away from the more or less explicit didacticism of much of his earlier work, in which text and graphic depiction are inextricably intertwined, Monceaux generally lets the subject matter of these paintings speak for itself. There is hardly a topic of Leather sexuality that is not explored, ranging from glory hole sex, to boot worship, to flogging scenes, cyber sex, and voyeurism. Other works focus on the social nature of the Leather scene--the contests, the clubs, and the bars in which Leathermen come together. Most recently, Morgan has translated and expand the works that comprise the Leatherman's Journal series into a true journal--a multi-media book, that integrates the subject matter of the paintings--in book size format--with other visual impressions on gender, sex, race, and relationships. |