Boys and Their Balls - Part 43

Pickleball

Pickleball is like a hybrid of tennis, wiffle ball, and ping pong.  It's played on a court like tennis, ...

it uses a hollow ball with holes like a wiffle ball, and the players use paddles like ping pong, only bigger.

Naked pickleball has become very popular at nudist resorts nationwide.  Above, Eric West and Brian Leonard at the Empire Haven Nudist Resort in Moravia, NY.

These are the pickleball courts at the Pine Tree nudist resort in Annapolis, Maryland.

Above, an aerial video of pickleball at the Pine Tree resort. 

The White Thorn Lodge in Darlington, PA.

The Glen Eden Sun Club in Temescal Valley, CA.

Laguna del Sol nudist resort in Wilton, CA.

We end with a photo from the Lake Como Family Nudist Resort in Lutz, FL.  He's throwing horseshoes, not playing pickleball, but I came across the photo while looking at photos from nudist resorts, and I had to share it.  Click on it for a larger image.

Weighing In - Part 45

 Lee Cook

This video shows English lightweight boxer Lee Cook weighing in at the Peacock Gym in London on January 21, 2010 for a fight the next day.  His opponent, Ben Murphy, the guy on the left, has just weighed in.  No modesty towels for this weigh-in, though Cook does use his hands.  And we get a nice rear view as he walks away.

Photographers - Part 45

 Sherwin Carlquist

Sherwin Carlquist (1930-2021) was a noted scientist.  After getting a PhD from the University of California at Berkeley and doing postdoc studies at Harvard, he published eight books and over 300 papers on botanical science.  One of his specialties was island botany, particularly long-distance plant dispersal.  Above, Carlquist sits among silverswords growing in the crater of Haleakala on Maui, Hawaii.  The resinous scent of the silverswords reminded him of the scent of the tarweeds that he had studied in California.  After further study, he concluded that the silverswords had evolved from tarweeds whose seeds must have arrived long ago over thousands of miles of ocean.

Here's one of his books.  As a resident of Hawaii, I find his work interesting.

Although some critics portrayed his work as old-fashioned, he stuck to his guns, supported by innumerable observations.  Later molecular studies have supported Carlquist's conclusions.  He had little time for critics with theories of disappearing land bridges, when a simpler explanation was that a bird could transport a seed.

Carlquist also loved sports cars and photography.  He once threw out all of his packed clothes, returning from Australia, so he could bring back 40 pounds of exposed film in his luggage.

But Carlquist was also unapologetically gay, and his passion for photography extended to nude men.  Many of his photos were taken in the garden of his home in Hope Ranch, California; others at Joshua Tree, Big Sur, and the Sierras.

The result was 10 books of photos of natural men in the natural environment.  And by natural men, he meant uncircumcised men (more on that later).  Above, the cover of his book Man/Nature.

All of his photos were taken with a large-format Hasselblad camera in black and white.  Above, one of the photos from Man/Nature.

Another photo from Man/Nature.

I love the photo on the cover of Natural Objects.  It looks like a view of hills, until you realize it's a man's hairy chest.

A photo from Natural Objects, captioned "Rob: the eucalyptus tree on Gaviola Beach."

Another photo from Natural Objects, captioned "Jay: the Ficus petiolaris tree in my garden."

Carlquist had strong views against circumcision.  Above is a 2009 photo of an uncircumcised penis and an unfolding frond of Cibotia chamissoi, a Hawaiian tree fern.  The curled-up fronds echo the shape of the foreskin.  A beautiful and striking composition.

He produced a whole book of photos called Uncut: The Natural History of the Foreskin.  Above, an erect penis almost covered by the foreskin.

Here's a gif I made from five photos in the book showing a man pulling back his foreskin.

Cold temperatures cause the foreskin to contract, along with the penis.  This was taken on a cold day in January.

Carlquist provided a bit of history for this one: ancient Greek athletes tied up their foreskin with a cord called a kynodesme (above).  It was perfectly acceptable for an athlete to be naked (our word gymnasium comes from the Greek word for naked, because it was a place to be naked), but the sight of the glans of the penis not covered by the foreskin was considered vulgar.

Carlquist also showed examples of the usefulness of the foreskin.  Above, it provides a place to accumulate precum, which then acts a lubricant.

In a slightly less serious vein, he proposed that it's a good place to store some spare change.

We end with this photo by Carlquist with the universal "OK" symbol, saying it's OK to have a foreskin.

Artists - Part 48b

Mark Beard

Yesterday we saw the work of gay artist Mark Beard, born in 1956, as his alter ego Bruce Sargeant (1898-1938).  Today we will see Beard's work under his own name, as well as work that he has done under several other aliases.

Above: Mark Beard in his New York City studio with a nude model.

Almost all of Beard's work that I could find under his own name consists of drawings, not paintings.  Above, an early work: Untitled (Nude man in red headband), 1974.

Male Drawing, 1996.

Male Study, 2011.

Male Model Standing, undated.  Although the models are not named, this is recognizably the same guy as the previous drawing.

Nude Studies, 2017.

Nude Study, 2017.

In addition to drawings, Beard has done some Polaroid transfers, which transfer the upper layer of a Polaroid photo onto paper.  Above: Marc, 1998.

This Polaroid transfer is Self-Portrait, 1991.  Note his big artist's palette.  Or maybe you were looking at something else of his that's big.

Speaking of something that's big, this Polaroid transfer is Aiden 1, 1991. The big thing presumably belongs to Mark Beard.  Aiden is Aiden Brady, who went on to become a gay porn star as Aiden Shaw and, later, a well-known fashion model under his own name.

But the most interesting thing about Mark Beard is that he has produced paintings under several different aliases.  The majority are by Bruce Sargeant.  We saw some of them yesterday.

Other artistic alter egos include Hippolyte-Alexandre Michallon (1849-1930), supposedly a 19th century French Academician who was the teacher of Bruce Sargeant.  Above: Hercules Mourning the Death of his Cupbearer Hylas by Michallon.

Another alter ego is Edith Thayer Cromwell (1893-1962), supposedly a lesbian American avant-garde painter, also taught by Michallon and a friend of Bruce Sargeant.  Above: Male Standing in the Woods by Cromwell, supposedly from 1925.

Another alter ego is Brechtholdt Streeruwitz (1890-1973), supposedly an Austrian Expressionist who studied in the Bauhaus and was an arch-rival of Bruce Sargeant.  Above: Heldenbergbesuch (Hero's Mountain Visit) by Streeruwitz, supposedly from 1925.

Another alter ego is Buggereau, a queer contemporary artist born in 1956 (the same year as Beard).  Above: Untitled #1, 2013 by Buggereau.

We end with alter ego Peter Coulter, born in 1948 (not to be confused with TV and film director Peter Coulter, who is a real person).  The fake Peter Coulter is an African-American artist taught by both Streeruwitz and Cromwell.  Above: a pop art-like piece by Coulter.

Remember, Mark Beard is the only one of these artists who actually existed.  But, using his alter egos, he has created art in many different styles, and that's pretty clever.

Artists - Part 48a

Bruce Sargeant

In Mark Beard's study of his great-uncle, the influential English artist Bruce Sargeant (1898-1938, above), he quotes from a four-page letter the artist wrote to a friend, in which he revealed a budding love affair with Yip, a laborer's son, who had agreed to pose nude for him.

"Yip took his break without pulling on his trousers," Sargeant wrote. "I poured him a large gin and myself one even larger to relinquish responsibility." ...

(Above: Three Men Undressing by Bruce Sargeant)

... "He stood warmly next to me. I could feel his prick, stomach, chest lightly through my clothes. He calmly touched my trousers to check if I were aroused and kissed me on the lips fully."

In his book Bruce Sargeant and his Circle, Beard wrote that that the relationship ended badly, but in those few lines lay the source of Sargeant's artistic voyage.

(Above: Two Men in Boxing Gloves by Bruce Sargeant)

In his short but productive life, Sargeant exalted the male figure.

(Above: Fumeurs sur les Roches (Smokers on the Rocks) by Bruce Sargeant)

Although the artist died in 1938 in a freak wrestling accident, his work has found a new audience in an age that no longer treads coyly around male sexuality. 

(Above: Two Men Reclining on a Blanket by Bruce Sargeant)

Foreshadowing fashion photographers such as Bruce Weber and Greg Gorman, it's no surprise that one of Sargeant's greatest pieces, a mural of seminude gymnasts, should hang in the branch of Abercrombie & Fitch on Fifth Avenue in New York City.

(Above: the mural in Abercrombie & Fitch)

The only problem is that Bruce Sargeant never existed.  He is the creation of gay New York artist Mark Beard, born in 1956, who actually painted all of these paintings and signed them "B Sargeant".  It's true that the mural by Bruce Sargeant (really by Mark Beard) was in Abercrombie & Fitch.  But the rest of the Bruce Sargeant biography is pure fiction.  The photo of Bruce Sargeant at the beginning of this post is actually Mark Beard dressed as his alter ego.

The fact that Bruce Sargeant didn't exist hasn't hurt the popularity of the Bruce Sargeant paintings.  Some of them have sold at auction for over $7,000.

(Above: Two Men Kissing)

Above, Practicing the Harp.  Behind the harpist is the previous painting Two Men Kissing, which makes this painting rather complex – a painting by a fake artist that refers to another painting by the fake artist.

Another favorite Bruce Sargeant subject is men bathing in a river.  Above, Bathers by the Shore.  I have to say that the skin color in the Bruce Sargeant paintings looks odd, in my opinion – grayish, with patches of orange.

Here's another of many Bruce Sargeant locker room paintings.  This one is simply called In the Locker Room.

I like Irishman with his Cello, partly because of the musical instrument, but also the skin color variations are subdued.

Most of the Bruce Sargeant paintings, while homoerotic, are not overtly sexual.  They just show nude males.  Calder Posing in a Black Leather Jacket is an exception, showing a man with an erection.

We end with the biggest exception to the no-sex rule.  This piece, Two Priests Alone in Their Room, has a painting on both sides.  Here's one side.

And when you flip it over, here's the other side.

For more of the imaginary life of Bruce Sargeant, as chronicled by Mark Beard, watch the video Bruce Sargeant, Artist on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWTPpIYyBcw.  It covers the life of the artist and his artistic training, with interviews of Mark Beard and commentary by experts from Yale University and elsewhere.  It is presented absolutely straight-faced, with no clue that the whole thing is a hoax.  The photos of Bruce Sargeant and his teacher Hippolyte-Alexandre Michallon are all actually Mark Beard dressed up and disguised, and the artwork, of course, is all by Mark Beard.  Strangely, the video cuts off abruptly in mid-sentence after ten and a half minutes, and I haven't been able to find the original video that this was presumably copied from.  But it's still a hoot to watch, and interesting to hear artist Mark Beard.

Mark Beard also produces art under his own name and other aliases.  We'll see that tomorrow.