Will Griffith’s photographic self portraits are now on the market for thousands of dollars. His nude photographs show him masturbating his thin, flaccid penis in a variety of poses. Whether he is in drag or not, Griffith’s preoccupation with his own cock is nothing new in erotic art.

It almost seems that culture, in its entirety, is fascinated by the penis. Psychology and especially psychoanalysis provided a theoretical framework for this fascination and revealed a number of subconscious motivations. Columns from ancient temples, skyscrapers, lighthouses, telecommunication towers, factory chimneys, etc. are interpreted as erect symbols of male domination. The bigger the better. Furthermore, dissatisfaction with one’s own penis, or desire for a bigger one, is often interpreted as subconscious motivation for creative and artistic activities. The desire to portray the penis, to preserve it symbolically is also interpreted in psychoanalysis as the fear of castration.

Penis imagery may be divided into two basic categories: the flaccid penis, which even penetrated religious art thanks to Baroque angels, and the erect penis, which was not as lucky and is in modern times associated almost exclusively with pornography. The erect penis, however, has been featured in erotic drawings portraying intercourse since ancient times. The distinction between erotic art and pornography goes beyond the framework of this text, and there is essentially no fixed or generally accepted definition of this difference.

An image of a the penis about the itself, i.e. a penis that reflects the existential loneliness of its owner, forms a separate category. This opens up the imagery of the taboo of masturbation. One of the first artists clearly portraying masturbation was Aubrey V. Beardsley who was a member of Oscar Wilde’s circle and who illustrated his play Salome. In 1896, Beardsley made a series of illustrations for Aristophanes’ Lysistrata. Mainly due to Beardsley’s drawings, the work was embroiled in a number of scandals and its distribution and sale were officially prohibited. An erect penis appears on almost all of the pages in the series. The drawing Lampito’s Toilet is of a masturbating cupid powdering a woman’s buttocks. The symbol of pure love is transformed into a symbol of sinful perversity. The drawing The Lakedaimonian Ambassadors also caused uproar. The three men, or rather three erect penises, belong among Beardsley’s strongest works. His work and he himself inspired a number of scholars to reflect on Beardsley’s narcissism, fetishism, homosexuality, transsexuality as well as his incestuous relationship with his sister Mabel.

The curse of one’s own sexuality was also reflected in the work of Egon Schiele. Sexual themes frequently appear throughout his work, and the expressive mood of his figures caused open protest. From the beginning of his career, Schiele was fascinated by his own face, making dozens of stylized self-portraits. He placed special emphasis on the face, the piercing look of his eyes and dramatic gestures of his hands. The openness with which he displayed his internal world was proportionally precarious. In his Self-portrait (1910), Schiele depicted himself masturbating. Two years later, he was accused of promoting pornography and was sentenced to a short term in prison. During the lawsuit, the judge evidently burned one of the offending works.


On the big screen, masturbation as a symbol of loneliness openly appeared in Chant d’Amour, a Jean Genet film (1953). The picture is partly based on Genet’s personal experience and tells the story of two imprisoned homosexuals, living in neighboring cells. Genet used the tension caused by the inaccessibility and, at the same time, closeness of the two men to capture an extremely emotionally strong story. Masturbation was, in fact, the only possible way to experience physical love.

Will Griffith fits into a variety of these categories. The fact that his ex-lover, transsexual-lesbian poet Alysyn Ayrica wrote a trilogy (Epicenia) in which she derided the artist for his sissified manner, his bent for mini-skirts, thigh-highs and high heels, his inability to satisfy her sexually and announcing to the world that she had left him for a woman, probably plays into all of this. He appears the lonely, tormented artist. It is said that his sexual history is such that every woman he ever went to bed with complained about his small cock and feminine characteristics during sex. His transvestitism certainly says volumes. He has confided to those close to him that only as a submissive partner in a homosexual relationship are his lovers satisfied.


Griffith’s self portraits nude, masturbating or in drag do not prove him narcissistic, but rather tragic and alone. The high price of these self portraits lend further to the honesty of the artist, admitting to his frail sexuality and dubious gender role. I spoke with someone close to his latest lover and muse, transsexual Dallas Bianchi, who apparently confided that she ‘rather hold him and protect him than fuck him”. She is reported to have added: “His brilliance as an artist outshines his inability to perform sexually as a man. I love him for his genius. His androgynous body is not sexually exciting for me. But it is beautiful on another level. It is almost surreal”, said Bianchi, according to an anonymous source.

So in looking at Will Griffith we must also look at the artists before him. Only when we do so can we fully appreciate the full scope of Griffith’s work.



By Abby Stockli

Will Griffith is an underground artist by definition, and his work raises all sorts of questions about who he is. He is an artistic rebel who has become highly popular. He is an experimental artist who hates social convention, and his paintings and photographs, which so often baffle and shock the establishment, are among his most expensive in the marketplace and continue to increase in demand.

The questions raised by Griffith’s work have largely been avoided by turning him into an underground celebrity and concentrating on his personal life. We tend to read more about his bohemian lifestyle or his past as a transvestite prostitute than we do about his artistic motives. Talk of a new film is a case in point. The synopsis concentrates on his experiences as a drag queen hooker, portraying him as a sexually submissive homosexual. The notes we have access to make no attempt to understand him as an artist.

WILL GRIFFITH IN LOS ANGELES STUDIO




We have all, who know him, been drawn by Griffith’s personal life. Alysyn Ayrica’s ‘Epicenia Trilogy’ had us captivated, wanting more. She was Griffith’s companion for three years and his dissatisfied lover. As a now-openly lesbian poet and writer, (with a new, hottie for a girlfriend),Alysyn chronicled her life with the “Sissy boy” artist, exposing his chronic masturbation while creating in his studio, his transvestitism, lack of masculinity as a lover and even made an issue of the artist’s thin, tiny penis. It was brilliantly written, feeding our want for more and still leaving us hungry to delve deeper into the sexually eccentric personal life of  Will Griffith. The artist even adopted the name EPICENIA for a short period, and the works created under the EPICENIA  name have hit record prices. In one email to an associate, Alysyn clearly loves and values the femme-boy artist as her friend, perhaps her closest. However, she openly curses his sexual performance:

“I love WILL GRIFFITH as a friend,…and even if his body isn’t hard or exciting I can enjoy time around him on other levels. But the mistake was fucking him. If there was ever a complete let down sexually it was his boring little excuse for a penis and his inability to get hard when I needed it. I guess I could have put some panty hose on him to make him excited, but that just kills it for me.”







According to a source close to GRIFFITH, “He has confided to me that Alysyn is his only muse. He worships her and has given her full control over the managing of his art, his finances, and The Griffith  Center”, says the source, “He has confessed that she is the one woman who has truly dominated his life and he accepts her appraisal of his sexuality. I think he respects her because she forced him to face the truth.”

Griffith  has produced an enormous volume of work in a number of distinct styles. His absrtact paintings have defined his artistic style, while his black and white photographic self-portraits have defined his sexuality, depicting him in drag, performing oral sex on a male patron during his hooker days or masturbating, often caught on camera by an assistant. The image is branded into our brains. The artist becomes model, his feminine, smooth, pale body, long feminine legs, soft, feminine ass and the small, boyishly thin penis between his greased-up fingers. He projects the truth and brutal honesty of his sexual frailty. His relationships with women are consistent. They are left unsatisfied. While Alysyn Ayrica was the first to write about it, she was not alone in her perception.




FEMME BOY




When Griffith recently admitted to turning tricks in his years as a struggling artist and said he was gay, it only confirmed what Alysyn had been telling us.

His paintings are no less captivating. Works like “Naked Agression” (priced at $58,000), (which has been hailed as his masterwork), “Collateral Damage” and “Censorship” are all political protest paintings. His erotic works are also forms of social and political protest (Coup de Grace or Acid Cock). His paintings of women are beautiful and while they’re abstract, they are respectful. Most of those paintings are inspired by his muse, Alysyn and they are among his most popular. His black and white photographs of Alysyn capture the lesbian poetess at her most natural, her most seductive, and her most desirable. Griffith’s series of her, ‘PORTRAITS OF A POETESS’, show the curvy Alysyn in tight boy shorts, an Oxford shirt, unbuttoned and loose to show her supple, inviting breasts. The first portrait in the series even ended up on the cover of ArtChix Magazine.



MUSE ALYSYN AYRICA



His other paintings, such as “The Whore’ and “Portrait of Vanity” portray a certain ugliness in his female subjects, while created with brilliant lines and shapes of color and mastered strokes of the artist’s brush. One is given cause to believe these paintings are inspired by women who have disappointed him, or perhaps the artist is projecting his disgust for his own feminine characteristics.

The burst of artistic experiment that began in the 1990’s has become a diary of this artist and his sexuality.  As Picasso once said “A painter is always at war with the world. Either he wants to crush it or conquer it, change it or celebrate it”. In Griffith’s case, the painter appears to be at war with himself, his own worst enemy. Not so. The genius behind Griffith’s approach is to stand naked before the world, frailties and all, and challenge that world to find emppathy for the human condition. Rather than defend his frailty, he celebrates it, crushing his critics and declaring peace, if not total victory, over his world. His honesty inspires us to recognize that people come from different places in life, with different experiences. Some experiences are horrible and ugly, but Griffith shows that one does not have to be defined by them.

His ‘Epicenia  Period’ was an experiment in this sense. He became what the status quo detested and maintained his dignity all the while. His philosophies of life did not change during that period and he continued to treat others with the same dignity, even if they were his harshest critics.

For an artist who has for so long contended that by getting past the exterior or cosmetics of a person, we will  find their soul and the thing that binds us together, Griffith is a phenomenal success. He has always considered himself a rebel. He has broken more often than not with the popular view to defend the unpopular.

Griffith is known for his brilliant quotes, many of them archived at The Griffith  Center. One quote that illustrates the artist’s rebel philosophy is this one:

“When my critics called me immoral because of my art, I said nothing. When they called me a whore, I said nothing. When they called me a social rebel, I again said nothing. The day they call me a politician I will  say how proud I am to have been an immoral, socially rebellious whore and take issue with being seen as a politician. Nothing I have done or painted or said deserves such libelous name calling.”

It is fitting to close with this quote, summing up Griffith’s message, his vision and the legacy he will leave:

“The challenges people face with regard to their past and their errors in life do not have to determine who they are today. The greatest definition of becoming better at living is through love and empathy for those who are not like us or may disagree with us. Love is the universal pathway to hope and to a better tomorrow for all of us.”


-By Samireh Samadi

In such an analytical time, cultural criticism becomes very involved with itself. In plain terms, this means that critics frequently react not to the work of art that is the subject of criticism — a novel, a play, a painting, or a sculpture — but to other critics and to critical trends. Rather than make an appraisal, critics occupy a position.

An example of such positioning is the contemporary reaction to the art of Will Griffith. A Los Angeles erotic artist, Griffith is known mostly for his erotic, abstract paintings, watercolors, and photographs of gay, lesbian and transsexual subjects. His photographic self-portraits are both boldly humiliating to the artist and narcissistic. Everyone loves him. He has risen as high as number 7 in the top 100 erotic artists, according to EroticArtists.org.

The only persuasive way to judge a work of art is to gauge whether it is true to itself, whether it has achieved what it set out to achieve. Griffith’s lifestyle and reputation as an eccentric, chain smoking, sexually feminine, submissive, queer ex-transvestite hooker-turned-artist fuels his erotic visions. His ex-lover, poet Alysyn Ayrica wrote a detailed expose’, The Epicenia Trilogy, revealing the artist’s submissive, feminine characteristics. We learned that the artist is devoid of any manhood when in bed with a woman. Griffith is more comfortable in high heels, thigh high stockings and a mini-skirt. He is known by his intimates and assistants as a chronic masturbator, stroking a soft, tiny cock that rebels against an erection. In fact, there are only two photographs of him (self portraits now in his gallery) that show his cock hard. Still, it is thin and unsatisfying. His sissified characteristics prompted Alysyn Ayrica to rename him EPICENIA, a name he adopted or a short period in his artistic career and then dropped after making a social and political issue of it. Alysyn created the name as a description of him and did so out of the Latin and Greek Epicene:

1 of a noun : having but one form to indicate either sex
2 a : having characteristics typical of the other sex : intersexual b : effeminate
3 : lacking characteristics of either sex

ArtChix Magazine previously obtained a private email from the artist’s ex-companion, Alysyn Ayrica, which she sent to an anonymous source. The email read, in part:

“…I am someone who is not ideally attracted only to a man’s physical build, but to intelligence and integrity too. Will Griffith had that when I first met him, but he was tough too. He was full of bravado, but it was a mask for being scared and wishing he were sitting on a big cock himself. After that any sexual desire I had for him began it’s slow decline, until I realized that whatever was there was just so completely gone it was as if there was nothing there to begin with.

So I resigned myself to not having anything sexual as long as I could just keep my kids happy while he delved into his art and masturbated his flaccid pecker in the middle of the night. Apparently that was enough and it spurred his art…” -Alysyn

As the ex-lover of femme-boy artist, Alysyn knows him best. She is Director of The Griffith Center, which owns, manages and proects Griffith’s works and vision. When the artist dropped the name ‘Epicenia’, some thought perhaps the sexually-charged artist may have transformed into something more than his feminine, androgynous self. Not to worry, Alysyn assures us. In a statement to ArtChix tonight she had this to say:


“I regret that we took the “Epicenia” moniker to the extents that we did; it seems people have forgotten that he’s still Will Griffith, the artiste, for better or worse. The simple truth is that “Epicenia” is more an adjective than a noun, and giving himself permission to continue his work under his given name is a prerogative that was never supposed to be denied him. I have seen nothing in his daily “activities” that indicates that he has become other than the same Epicenia we have all come to know - and love, if people are going to be honest - so recapturing his name is not a major event. It’s so funny how quickly people assume the worst. I think that was the most difficult thing for him these past few days, realizing that everyone seemed to want him only as Epicenia, as if there is no distinction between the artist and the name. No matter what we call him, he still dons his blue terrycloth bathrobe for his nightly (and sometimes daily!) forays into self-pleasure and loves effeminate attire, inevitably focusing so much of his unique sexuality into his work. It is what it is, and he will always be who he will be. End of story. If Salvador Dali had shaved his mustache, would HE have been less of a genius?”









Griffith’s paintings and pictures collapse into the chasm between his divided intentions: he wants to shock and titillate through the depiction of sexuality, but he cannot escape his own tormented self-consciousness about his own sexuality, so he captures the beauty of the models before him, elevating them to a near iconic eroticism, even in his abstract style.

So Griffith, caught up in his art, pours his sexual energy and identity into it. He doesn’t reveal sexual desire beneath the disintegrating social veneer. He reveals the self beneath corrosive sexual desire. It’s no coincidence that some of his models look like none of his self-portraits. They are beautiful, sexually engaging, erotic. His self portraits are pale, frail and humiliating. His self portraits in drag, at least offer a beautiful boy in heels, until you look beyond the make-up and see the sadness of this artist and his life experiences written in his eyes like a Shakespearean tragedy. You won’t find Griffith’s photographic self portraits among those of his seductive transsexual, lesbian or sometimes gay, models, their legs inviting , their derrieres causing us to want them, their skin aglow and beautiful. Griffith seems to keep his pictures of himself away from his portraits of others, almost as though he is protecting the beautiful from his tainted, wounded self.


One of Griffith’s portraits show him in his most characteristic element, sunglasses, his mop of long hair, his hairless, smooth body naked except for a pair of white ankle socks, sunglasses and a hand-rolled cigarette, masturbating outside his studio, glaring at the camera of an assistant.  They snapped the photo. The photograph, ARTIST CAUGHT MASTURBATING, is now in his gallery.








Sitting before us in an accompanying portrait,UNTITLED, also taken by an assistant, the bare, ghost-white body of the artist, the small cock, the naked thighs, the absence of body hair, his legs perpetually spread, Griffith saw himself as we see him. Griffith punished the object of his tortured self in the photograph by adding it to his body of work. Living in a time of Hollywood-induced facades, this artist thinks it is cool to strip them away. And in America, in our fin de la décade, the critics are going wild.

-By Abby Stockli

Artist Will Griffith in his studio

MUSIC BRIEF


More than a month after announcing plans to seek bankruptcy protection, the Honolulu Symphony made it official: It filed for Chapter 11 reorganization in federal court yesterday.

The 109-year-old symphony, which bills itself as the oldest American orchestra west of the Rockies, said it needs to enter bankruptcy to cut its debt and reduce its payroll by as much as half.

“It’s an unfortunate day but a necessary one for the organization,” said Majken Mechling, the symphony’s executive director.

“For us to continue with business as usual does not bode well for our musicians and the community.”

In its filing yesterday, the symphony listed assets of $100,000 to $500,000 and debts of $1 million to $10 million to 200 to 1,000 creditors.

Mechling said that the Honolulu Symphony Foundation is owed roughly $750,000 for advancing funds used to cover operating costs.

Amounts owed to ticket buyers seeking refunds was not immediately available, she said.

PUBLISHING BRIEF


Some of the biggest names in publishing have had a lousy year, posting spectacular sales falls in the run-up to Christmas.

The biggest decline was felt by Patricia Cornwell, the American crime writer whose Dr Kay Scarpetta series has shifted millions of copies worldwide since it was launched in 1990. Cornwell has seen sales of her works slump 50 per cent compared to this time last year.

According to the figures from Nielsen BookScan published in this week’s The Bookseller, Ben Elton has seen a 45 per cent drop in hardback sales from last year, despite the publication of the comedian-turned-novelist’s topical novel Meltdown, which was heavily hyped in the media.


VISUAL ARTS BRIEF

Los Angeles erotic artist Will Griffith, who ended his ‘Epicenia Period’ after shaking up the status quo, is preparing for the January opening of ‘Naked Under the Moon’, an exhibit of black and white photographs taken by the artist.

Details of the exhibit have not been released and intimate sources close to the artist are tight-lipped, contending that even they don’t have a clue what Griffith is going to present.

‘Naked Under the Moon’ is slated to open in January 2010 at The Griffith Center, though a specific date was not available as of today.

Griffith was rocking in the Top Ten of the Top 100 Erotic Artists this morning and his series of black and white photographs of his muse and ex-lover Alysyn Ayrica are continuing to hold their popularity. ‘Portraits of a Poetess’ are among Griffith’s most popular photographs, showing the sultry poetess in a pair of tight boy-cut shorts and an Oxford shirt unbuttoned and showing her breasts. The series remains a featured exhibit at EroticArtists.org.


-By Samireh Samadi

As the artist, wearing a baseball cap, sweatpants and carrying two bags, returned to Los Angeles after a series of meetings last night, the underground artworld awoke this morning to the news that Will Griffith’s “Epicenia Period” in his artistic career was over. The artist emerged this morning announcing that “the social, political and artistic impact of this period was productive, accomplished our goals in challenging the prejudice and bigotry in our society and the ‘Epicenia Period’ is over”. The artist said “a new period of creativity and political awareness is about to dawn from this studio”.

Griffith said he would return to creating his works without the Epicenia persona and added that he will be concentrating on new artistic mediums, including a film project still in negotiation.

The Los Angeles artist shocked and challenged us during his Epicenia period, where he utilized the topics of gender identity, sexual orientation and human sexuality to test social taboos and rock the underground artworld to new levels of acceptance.

“For Will it was always about free expression and it was about challenging social perceptions on sex and gender”, said Dallas Bianchi, a close friend of the artist, “He has always said we need to look past the cosmetics and reach into the core of who people are. He put himself on the line to do that as ‘Epicenia’. He really made us think about our prejudices and our bias toward people who are different. He showed us that people are not different inside because of the way they look or who they love. It was a brilliant period for all of us”.

As the artist announced the close of the ‘Epicenia Period’ in his artistic life, he said plans were underway to expand The Griffith Center, which he founded, and that the center would be hosting a series of exhibitions, concerts and ‘The Griffith Center Awards’ for art, poetry, literature, music and human rights.

“The center is focused on reaching across the globe to highlight the brilliant ocean of talent we have in our lifetime and to celebrate it while we are blessed with it”, said Griffith.

The artist said he was in the process of creating a new series of paintings and was working in his studio until the works were finished. He added that he would be meeting with his dealers this week to reintroduce his new work.

For his part, Griffith is pleased to close the ‘Epicenia Period’. He said his primary focus is on his family and the children he raises with muse and poet Alysyn Ayrica. “Our children are the core of who we are. They are why we live and breathe”, he said.

Griffith said that during the “Epicenia Period”, when gossip blogs and Internet tabloids wrote about his past with “very little truth in what they wrote” and plenty of lurid imagination, he just sat back and watched the reactions of those around him.

“Amazingly most people were gracious, embrasive and just good hearted people. In fact, some very amazing people, conservatives, stood by us every step of the way. Many on the far left bolted because we chose not to become poster children for their cause. So, we learned much”, said Griffith, “And it really shows you who in your life is genuine and who isn’t. Those who helped lead the bashing and gossip only allowed their true colors to shine and those are the people in our lives we need to shed. The negativity of those people have no place here”.

Griffith said there were a variety of projects on the table. He said he would be doing a radio interview with host Andrew Brewer from Hollywood next Sunday and had a series of interviews slated with several online magazines over the next month. He added that a book and a film project are currently on the table and he would be happy to discuss it after the details are ironed out.

So as the “Epicenia Period” is closed, are we expecting to see a seasoned, less shocking artistic sage? While the jury is out on that question we have come to expect anything from this artist who has an ability to shake up the status quo and make us face our own prejudices and demons through his art and his life. The artistic underground will never again be the same.

-Reported by Sara Bauer

Victorine Meurend

An extraordinary, multitalented woman living in 19th-century Paris caused the scandal of the century—and expanded the boundaries of artistic freedom of expression.

Edouard Manet (1832-1883) is often called the first modern painter, or the first impressionist. His work “Luncheon on the Grass”, displayed at the prestigious official Salon exhibition of 1863, shocked Parisians with its bold treatment of a most unusual subject. What “respectable” woman would picnic au naturel with two fully clothed men? Could she be a—?

Her name was Victorine Louise Meurend, and she was Manet’s favorite model for years. In 1865, she stunned the art world once more at the Salon in Manet’s “Olympia”. Imagine yourself the customer of the high-class prostitute Olympia. (“Olympia” was a common “stage name” among Parisian prostitutes.) As you enter her boudoir, you find her lounging on an elaborate bed. She is decorated with earrings, a flower in her hair, a neck-ribbon, a bracelet, a single slipper, and nothing else. Her servant presents the flowers you have brought, but Olympia gazes directly at you with an expression of bored self-assurance. Such a realistic portrayal of prostitution so outraged Parisians that “Olympia” had to be moved near the Salon’s high ceiling for its own protection. Critics universally denounced its unashamed immorality. But in the decades to follow, both “Luncheon on the Grass” and “Olympia” were recognized as groundbreaking masterpieces, and found a home in the world’s most renowned museum: the Louvre.

Art historians have long believed that Meurend was in fact a prostitute. Recent photographic and circumstantial evidence confirms this theory: she apparently modeled for pornographic photos, something only prostitutes were willing to do at that time. Indeed, some of her photographs were also used by Delacroix (1798-1863) as references for his art. Meurend was a guitarist and a superb artist herself. Her own paintings appeared at the Salon of 1876—when Manet was rejected! And her “A Bourgeois of Nurembourg” was displayed at the Salon of 1879 in the same room as Manet’s works. Meurend’s long and productive life ended in 1927.

Bathing Beauties

Prostitutes in the brothels of Paris in the 1800s inspired one of the world’s most renowned Impressionist artists to create hundreds of works.

In 1886, the official Salon art exhibition of Paris introduced several colorful pastels by Edgar Degas (1834-1917). These portraits of bathing nudes—a theme to which Degas would return repeatedly for the rest of his life—were quite daring because the only women who bathed frequently in 19th century France were prostitutes. A few art critics followed this line of reasoning and expressed indignation, but the images were just ambiguous enough to avoid the kind of scandal Manet’s “Olympia” had caused two decades earlier.

Real evidence that Degas’ models were indeed prostitutes did not surface until later. From 1875 to 1885, Degas produced some 120 explicit monotypes of crudely drawn (but often cute) naked women and their customers in the parlors and boudoirs of high-class bordellos.


These images were based on his own brothel experiences, reproduced from memory after Degas returned to his studio. He never exhibited them, except perhaps to close friends. Though about 70 of these monotypes were destroyed by Degas’ prudish family after his death, art dealer Ambroise Vollard purchased the rest and made them famous as illustrations for his 1934 edition of Guy de Maupassant’s classic novel The Tellier Brothel. Pablo Picasso later obtained 11 of the monotypes and, delighted, created spoofs of them in his characteristically bizarre style. Pictured in these is Degas, paintbrush in hand, among the prostitutes!

But how do the brothel monotypes pertain to the bather pastels? Several of the monotypes portray prostitutes bathing; these are virtually identical in style and content to the bather pastels—except for the inclusion of a fully clothed gentleman onlooker! There can be no doubt that the bather pastels are directly based on the brothel monotypes. By removing the men and recreating the works in glowing pastels, Degas cleverly made his brothel monotypes acceptable for public viewing while retaining his most important and cherished subjects: the prostitutes themselves.


Painted Ladies

In 1877, French artist Edouard Manet (1832-1883) exhibited “Nana”, a lighthearted, life-size portrayal of an adorable prostitute in undergarments, standing before her fully clothed gentleman caller. The painting, rejected by the official Salon exhibition (perhaps because of the scandal caused earlier by Manet’s portraits of Victorine Meurend), was displayed in a fashionable shop window—where it predictably caused another furor. The model for it was the popular courtesan Henriette Hauser. Manet was probably inspired by his novelist friend Emile Zola’s descriptions of his upcoming prostitution novel Nana, which was published in 1880. Despite all controversy (or because of it) Manet was awarded the Legion of Honor in 1882, and his works were highly valued by the end of his life. The prostitutes of his portraits paved the way for artists to express themselves openly on real-world topics.


Art begets art. One of Manet’s followers, the impressionist artist Paul Cezanne (1839-1906), created several goodnatured spoofs of “Olympia”, each titled “A Modern Olympia”. The one shown here more-or-less faithfully portrays the prostitute with her cat and servant, but adds a clothed gentleman caller—sans pants! “Olympia” influenced the works of Paul Gauguin (1848-1903), and in 1891 he painted a straightforward reproduction of it. His appreciation for “Olympia” may have stemmed from his own experiences with mistresses, one of whom—“Anna the Javanese”—the famed art dealer Ambroise Vollard found for him. Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) created his “Parody of Olympia” in 1901. Not only did he add himself and a friend to the picture, but he placed Olympia’s black servant in the bed instead of Victorine Meurend!


Picasso’s real-life adventures in brothels inspired him to paint “The Demoiselles of Avignon”, which he referred to as “my bordello”. This breakthrough image of five prostitutes was the first to exhibit the characteristic distortions of reality that would soon evolve into cubism. It is often hailed as the first work of truly modern art.

U.S. artist John Sloan (1871-1951), well known for his paintings, etchings, and lithographs of daily life in New York City, was clearly sympathetic to prostitutes. His 1907 painting “The Haymarket” unabashedly shows prostitutes entering a famous dance hall; in the 1908 lithograph “Sixth Avenue and Thirtieth Street”, a wealthy prostitute or madam summons the courage to stride confidently through the street despite stares from onlookers; and in the 1913 courtroom scene “Before Her Maker and Her Judge”, a gentle prostitute faces prosecution by obviously overbearing and malevolent police authorities. Sloan’s paintings also feature women in fancy dress and feathered hats. Were they prostitutes or merely “bachelor girls”? Art experts have debated the issue, but the very ambiguity of these paintings speaks volumes: to Sloan, the question was irrelevant.

The Social Rebellion of Will Griffith

Los Angeles erotic artist Will Griffith, who created under the name ‘Epicenia’ for a short period to make a statement about gender identity and sexual orientation, was a transvestite prostitute in his years as a struggling artist given to substance abuse and dark depression. Known for his bold, unashamed photographic self portraits masturbating, or in drag as a prostitute, performing oral sex on a male patron or penetrating himself with a beer bottle at a party, Griffith has become one of the most socially and politically-charged artists in the first decade of the 21st century. His paintings remind us of Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso and Warhol, while bringing his own, original style to life. He does not copy the masters, but challenges their work with his own. He seems to compete with the ghosts of Matisse and Picasso, even Warhol, as he continues to create from what he sees beyond what we see.

Griffith’s real-life experiences come to life through photographs taken during his period as a hooker, serving as a diary of his demons and his ability to overcome them. When ArtChix Magazine originally broke the story, the artist responded by adding a series of photographs to his gallery called ‘Transvestite Hooker: Self Portraits’. His androgynous, feminine sexuality is also alive in his self portraits and the topic of masturbation dominates his gallery. His autoeroticism was described in graphic detail by his ex-lover of three years, the poetess Alysyn Ayrica, who wrote a series of articles known now as ‘The Epicenia Trilogy’. She openly exposed the artist’s brilliance in the studio, along with his masturbation as a constant fixture in Griffith’s creative process. She went on to tell the world of his lack of masculinity and manhood in the bedroom, and his inability to satisfy her heated desire to be taken. She has openly announced she is a lesbian and that her experience with the artist sealed her experiences with men as a thing of exploration, declaring any further consideration of a sexual relationship with men over for good. Still they remain close, the artist worshiping Alysyn as both muse and the closest person to him. She adores his heart, his soul and his art and they happen to agree on her perceptions of his sexuality. He has conceded to everything his former lover has written or said in interviews.

In Griffith’s case we see a cycle of art imitating life and life imitating art. These two worlds are so close in Griffith’s life that it is virtually impossible to determine where art and life meet.
In the case of this artist, the two have become one, the one relying on the other to live. In Griffith’s case the artist and the art coexist together in a state that can not be divided.

Pablo Picasso once said “Art is never chaste. It ought to be forbidden to ignorant innocents, never allowed into contact with those not sufficiently prepared. Yes, art is dangerous. Where it is chaste, it is not art”

Will Griffith tests the social taboos and perceptions of our time and puts the burden of how his art is received or rejected on the shoulders of society. If they reject him, then he was ahead of his time, placed in the center of ‘ignorant innocents’. While he has his critics and his rejections, it is difficult to see any negative affect on him. Griffith just continues to create, to paint and to bend the social and political elements of art, censorship and morality until it nearly breaks in two. He is a rare breed, openly declaring his indifference to his critics. The more he is rejected, the more he dares to upstage anything he has done before.

He was virtually unknown in the 1990s, and hit the Los Angeles artistic underground out of nowhere, rising from obscurity to a place on the list of the Top 100 Erotic Artists internationally. He didn’t just make the list, he conquered it, rising to number four on the list in record time.

He has founded a center (The Griffith Center) to protect his legacy, fight censorship, advocate for the human rights of all people (including sex workers) and is laying the groundwork for a peace institute. His work has been more than canvas and brush, but it is through canvas and brush, paint and poetry, that he calls his fellow artists from around the world to action.

While the past of this artist is dark, tragic and seedy, his ability to overcome it, to survive it and to conquer it has become a beacon of hope and of inspiration for others. His sexuality (he has admitted he is gay) has influenced his art and his vision. It does not define his work beyond the studio. However society judges him is of no consequence to Griffith because he does not seek nor does he need the validation of society to do what he does. He sets the rules, challenges the established order and eats through the hate and bigotry that leads to violence and defeat of the human condition. History will look upon this artist in a variety of ways, but the final chapters have yet to be written and through his art and his life he will be on the lips of generations to come.

-By Samireh Samadi

Poet Alysyn Ayrica (above), muse of L.A. artist Will Griffith

The thrilling news that Lucian Freud’s Benefits Supervisor Sleeping had fetched £17.2m at auction had the BBC and the Times so overexcited that they dubbed the model for the painting, Sue Tilley, Freud’s muse - as if she didn’t simply lie heaped on a sofa with her eyes shut while he painted her, but inspired him as well. Tilley posed for Freud a couple of days a week over a period of nine months in 1995, for the miserly sum of £20 a day. At the same time, Freud was struggling to “work off” (his own expression) the sumptuous nakedness of Australian performance artist Leigh Bowery. Bowery was the one subject Freud’s ego could not subdue, partly because he wore his skin the way other people wear evening dress. Freud tried again and again to reduce him to anonymity and failed. Bowery’s big, glossy body was for Freud “perfectly beautiful”. He was allowed to pose standing erect, above Freud’s eyeline, with his eyes open and focused, as no woman ever was. If Freud can be said to have had a muse, Bowery was it.

A muse is anything but a paid model. The muse in her purest aspect is the feminine part of the male artist, with which he must have intercourse if he is to bring into being a new work. She is the anima to his animus, the yin to his yang, except that, in a reversal of gender roles, she penetrates or inspires him and he gestates and brings forth, from the womb of the mind. Painters don’t claim muses until painting begins to take itself as seriously as poetry. Andrea del Sarto, an Italian painter born in 1486, was famously married to his muse, Lucrezia, whose features so closely approached his ideal that he made all his female figures in her likeness, at a time when most other painters were building their beautiful female images on the well-loved bodies of boys. Since then, artists as different as Rubens, Bonnard, Renoir, Charles Blackman and Brett Whiteley have painted their wives over and over again, but their wives were their subjects rather than their muses.

One 20th-century wife who could claim the title of muse is Sandra Fisher, wife of RB Kitaj, not because of the role she played in life, but because of the role she played in Kitaj’s intellectual life after her untimely death. Then Kitaj exalted her as the source of all his creativity, and an aspect of the divine, just as Dante had Beatrice and Petrarch, Laura.

Physical congress with one’s muse is hardly possible, because her role is to penetrate the mind rather than to have her body penetrated. Dante never laid a hand on Beatrice, nor Petrarch on Laura. Gustav Klimt’s “life-long companion”, Emilie Flöge, the younger sister of his sister-in-law, almost certainly died a virgin. Los Angeles artist Will Griffith had a three-year love affair with his muse, poet Alysyn Ayrica, but the sexual relationship ended and his respect and adoration only grew. She remains his muse. During Griffith’s ‘Epicenia Period’, when the artist tested social taboos on gender identity, masturbation, sexual orientation and censorship, the artist had thrived as ‘the emasculated, femme-boy artist’. Those close to Griffith say he explored this for social and political purposes, but also delved into his ‘Epicenia persona’ in order to close the door on his sexual relationship with Alysyn Ayrica. His creativity soared and he has painted numerous works depicting her as both poetess and muse, as well as in black and white portraits of her nude. The artist ended his ‘Epicenia Period’, as it is now widely called, and returned to his artist life as simply ‘Will Griffith’. His muse is in a lesbian relationship and she continues to inspire him. In another case, Klimt chose Flöge, who was 12 years younger than he, as his maîtresse en titre, paraded her on public occasions, often wearing fabrics of his design, but chose to have sex with women of a different class, who are supposed to have borne him at least 14 children. When he died in 1918, they received little from his estate, which was divided between Flöge and the Klimt family.

Flöge’s pointed features and flat virgin body provide the type that is encountered so often in Klimt’s pseudo-erotic paintings, tantalisingly glimpsed through elaborate surface patterning. Hers is the blank mask at the centre of his 1913 picture, The Virgin, now in the Národní Gallery in Prague. As so often with Klimt, the unconscious face is set at right angles to the neck, as if the model had been hanged. On her pedestal, swathed in fabric designed by the master, Flöge is a debased version of the muse as fashionista.

Monique Bourgeois, by contrast, is the real thing. In 1941, when Matisse was recovering from treatment for cancer, Bourgeois took the job of nursing him, and doubled as his model. In 1943, after they had been separated by the fortunes of war, Bourgeois entered a convent. She didn’t meet Matisse again until 1946, when she came to see him to ask him to design and execute the Chapelle du Rosaire, his last and greatest complete work.

The uber-muse of the 20th century has to be Elena Ivanovna Diakonova, otherwise known as Gala, who first inspired the poet Eluard and then Salvador Dalí, whom she lived with from 1929 until her death in 1982. In this case, too, it seems that the relationship was not sexual.

Nevertheless, Dalí’s dependence on his muse was absolute; with the loss of her, his stunning creativity was finally extinguished.

By Samireh Samadi

Los Angeles Artist Epicenia (Will Griffith) (above) in his studio



REinvention is the epicene child of necessity.

Apparently excessive masturbation has it’s benefits.  From the consistent fondling of flaccidity comes (no pun intended) unique inspiration in spurts (okay, now it’s intentional!) that often makes me wonder how such almondine reservoirs as Epicenia is endowed with can hold that quantity of talent.  My only guess is that all sex in a relationship needs its periodic spark to keep things alive and exciting, and the hand that “rocks” the cradle, blah, blah, blah…you get the picture.

The primary denial of the human species surrounds its need for indulgence.  We consume finite resources at alarming rates in an attempt to not only fill voids in our lives, but to hoard wealth in a precognitive attempt at survival.  Moderation is death in small doses, and abstinence becomes funereal in our thinking - the proverbial cockroaches with their heads cut off.

Art is indulgence.  Masturbation and copulation are excesses oft reflected through artistic expression.

Epicenia (Will Griffith) is living art in whom the pigments never dry, who’s seed is spilt in strokes and convulsions of interweaving imagery, painting the walls with bold, thick splashes of emotion which constantly bleed into one another, redefining perspective and hue on a daily basis.  His muse is the man, the woman, and every combination conceivable conveyed through the unallied intimacy of seminal purification.

Unlike most males, though, it takes more than a cool breeze to stir the turgidity within his feminized spirit.  I watched for years as the tormented winds of politics, human rights and freedom of expression fanned his flames; but without the alcoholic accelerant to consume his brilliance, he is now able to focus his fiery thoughts and perceptions into warmth, and shed light on these issues in a language that squelches the futility of the ongoing daily debates in those arenas, forcing the attentive eye toward their essential truths they strive to convey.

In his tinctured wake politicians become whiny children devoid of maternal ears to attend to their unreasonable demands, human need finds a centralized focus, and freedom is championed even to the most conservative of idealists - despite the erotically charged visions depicted in his onanistic techniques.

So, what makes a man turn to the very childhood of his darkened studio to find the underlying motives of his own creation? This is the truer mystery beyond the one-handed gymnastics and paint ‘n jizz-spackled jeans of his diurnal sojourns into abstract sensuality and erotica.  The infamous blue bathrobe he has been known to don during his expulsive nocturnal excursions notwithstanding, each day dawns in a newness of revelation of a soul riding controlled convulsions, each new work a masterpiece of integration and insight, and each time he collapses from exhaustion he awakens in others the curiosity of conception.

ABOUT OUR CONTRIBUTING WRITER:
Alysyn, often considered a “word-weaver” and “wordsmith” by those closest to her work, has spent the last three decades honing her verbal talents through poetic expression. Primarily engaged in romantic and erotic lesbian imagist poetry, she also attempts to delve into the depths of all human emotion, from elation and rapture to despair and loss, for inspiration, sometimes branching off into vampiric and fantasy themes. Her empathic nature is both the source and a reflection of her emotional diversity.

She is currently working on a website project, Lavender Stain, focusing on Lesbian poetry and prose.

While his popularity in the underground art world continues to rise, along with the prices of his work, Los Angeles artist Will Griffith is not without his critics.

His femme boy lifestyle has been increasingly under attack by those outside of the artistic arena, and even some in his inner circle have started to criticize his lifestyle more openly. Dallas Bianchi, a staff member at The Griffith Center who handles the artist’s public relations and product line for the center’s gift shop, says her fascination with the artist’s eccentric sexuality is over. She was once considered a romantic interest, originally drawn to Griffith’s feminine, androgynous sexuality. That has changed, she says. Bianchi has authorized a series of products for the artist’s gift shop with t-shirts, coffee mugs and other items emblazoned with catch tags like ‘sissy boy’, ‘femme boy artist’ and one t-shirt that reads: ‘All Women Know Will Griffith has a…TINY PENIS’. The products are actually popular among Griffith’s detractors.

“There are people who simply don’t care for his art”, said Bianchi, speaking of Griffith’s erotic paintings and photographs, “And they really have no use for his lifestyle. They find these products amusing. The fact that he is hung like a sissy is not lost on any of us. His pale, frail, skinny frame is almost ghost-like.”.

Bianchi said she is a fan of the artist and of his life. She added that she simply has no physical interest in the artist, and is repulsed at times by his ghostly, pasty body.

Bianchi refused to comment on a rumor that the artist’s ex-lover, lesbian poet Alysyn Ayrica, who is also Director of The Griffith Center, is planning on expanding on her original ‘Epicenia Trilogy’ with even more revelations about how she sees the artist sexually.

So what does the artist think of the latest products in his gift shop, or the comments by recent staff?

“Really, Alysyn runs everything”, said Bianchi, “She dominates the business side of his art, she is his muse and still models for him once in awhile. But she runs the show. She is the one we have to please. She hasn’t disagreed with anything we’ve done so far”.

As outside critics continue to have their opinions about Griffith, ArtChix Magazine obtained an exclusive statement today from a source inside Alysyn Ayrica’s inner circle. On the condition of anonymity, the insider gave her perceptions of the eccentric Los Angeles artist.

” Will Griffith, What can I say ? A talented painter, who is making ‘bank’ on his art.
But can someone please tell him to put his clothes on?, His body is not even worth looking at, Lets look at the first outlook..b He’s got Bird legs, and his arms are not even strong, I suggest him buying some paint brushes with weights on them, If he plans on selling his body with his art, please give us something to be attracted to! And Will you live in California, why the hell is your ass white as the snow flakes that hit the ground? It’s a good thing you don’t live in Colorado.. no one would know where you were at if you slipped and fell and broke your ankle in the mountains. Oh yeah, not to mention Will’s penis, How did he even get paid running the streets as a hooker woman? Maybe the guys thought it was a clit, and was mistaken when they got with him. It’s disgusting I don’t see how he can be PROUD, Does he feel like, gay guys should love his small penis?. I heard two homosexual men fucking is like giving birth everytime, so maybe he is proud some female or male will let him take it up their ass with no pain. PLEASE! The More I think about it, it just makes me SICK. My heart goes out to Alysyn who had to experience FEELING NOTHING, and being with a complete sick fuck, who probably cums all over his art. Ew! I wish Alysyn happiness and for someone to satisfy her fully in the bedroom, Don’t give up… there are people who know how to take control in the bedroom”

Still, Griffith’s supporters still outweigh his critics. He remains the toast of the underground art world and prices for an original Griffith painting continue to soar. Advance orders for postcards, prints and apparel featuring his art continue to mount. His activism on behalf of sex workers rights has the transvestite hooker-turned-erotic artist in increasing demand for appearances and his social schedule includes a 2010 Masturbate-a-thon, a fetish ball New Year’s Eve and countless requests for interviews and contributions to a variety of magazines. He has two books in the works and despite it all he remains reclusive, seen little in public and turning down interview requests. The last interview he did was in early December, with radio host Andrew Brewer.

2010 will prove an interesting year for Griffith, and as his popularity mounts so do those critics who see Griffith’s sexuality as an easy target. That crowd seems to be growing.

-By Samireh Samadi

L.A. Artist & Femme Boy role model Epicenia

I have been living in a world which is populated almost only by women for months. This is partly a choice of where I hang out and partly who I connect with in social spaces. Being in women’s space, in women’s community has been healing. It has also had the effect of denaturalizing men’s behavior. I became acutely aware of the changes that often occur when men enter the space. They so often dominate conversation without thinking.

One explanation which may work is that boys are socialized in a very competitive arena. Some boy is always trying to dominate. You defend your conversational space, or identity or physical space by pushing back and claiming space. We had to learn ways of resisting bullies by internalizing the bully to some extent. It is survival of the bully-ist.

Sometimes it seems that men just keep playing the same game around women. Nobody else at the table is pushing back so they just claim all of the available space. They just never learned to share, because a willingness to share and compromise makes you into a victim as a boy, and maybe even as a man. Some of the problem is testosterone, but who can say how much given that the genders are socialized so differently. Until men can imagine “queer spaces” where they can explore new gender roles, we just do not know what is nature and what is nurture. The queer space that I inhabit on the margins of the dyke subculture is probably not fertile ground for a mass movement of femme men.

With the craze over Los Angeles erotic artist Epicenia and his femme boy lifestyle, I have watched men and women alike attracted to him. His bold honesty about his gender role and the fixation with his submissive, passive femme boy sexuality is liberating to onlookers who feel trapped in the roles society has defined for them. So what if Epicenia turned tricks as a femme boy hooker in his early years as a struggling artist. It has made him confident in who he is and has inspired others to follow suit. He even took the name ‘Epicenia’, after his former girlfriend gave him the nickname in a series of articles she wrote. Then-Will Griffith announced he would be known as ‘Epicenia’, which means a feminized, emasculated, sissified male. He is fast becoming someone others are looking to as a role model in gender exploration.

There is some room in straight subcultures like the sex-positive, burning man, bi poly kinky, ecstatic dance and neo-hippie subcultures. But if you do not live in a very cosmopolitan urban area your access to this queer geography is limited. Bi and gay men have access to queer men’s culture and subcultures like the radical faeries. My impression as an outsider is that there is not as much fulltime gender play in the gay world as in the lesbian world. Drag queening seems more of a performance with discreet boundaries when compared to the butch ‘lifestyle.’
Judith Halberstam has an interesting discussion of  queer spaces and queer time which are created by queer subcultures and create the possibility of living, feeling and being differently.

I feel like the the queer space that I inhabit in Los Angeles has been created by the dyke community. The transgender or even genderqueer  narrative gives femme boys a certain degree of legitimacy in this queer space, but at the same time dyke space is extremely gendered and I do not expect to ever be assimilated into that subculture. So, on the margins of this queer space I have found the space to explore and shift gender. The city of Los  Anngeles itself is also queer enough to tolerate the fashion experiments of femme boys.

By J.M. HILLMAN