These paintings are the first in a series I am working on presently titled The Song of Songs. The most erotic and controversial part of the Bible, The Song of Songs (alternately The Song of Solomon), has been interpreted in a variety of ways throughout history. This series, forty paintings in all, will be my own queer, personal interpretation; the series will be a love song to my wife and son.

I am working through the poem from beginning to end, so that the paintings follow the poem’s course. The beginning of the poem is an exuberant crush, the falling in love. My visual equivalent of this is represented by a trip my wife and I took to the northwestern coast of Italy. The landscape was surreal with beauty and exceeded my wildest dreams, much like that stage in our young relationship. I used photographs from this trip as source material for these paintings.