I just wanted to take a moment here to discuss a certain philosophy concerning the depictions of my armpits smeared in Mexican food. These types of photosets will periodically be published in the Hairy Gay Armpit Carnival Section section of this website and they hold a high artistic importance to me. Ever since I can remember I have always been obsessed with the notion of irony and the idea of "flipping things over," taking something that is commonly thought of disgusting, undesirable or vile, and making it appear beautiful, or givng it a positive utilitarian purpose. This is a common practice of poets, artists, etc., of course, taking something horrible and making it appear beautiful through symbols and language. And since language and symbols are by and large how people understand and process the world, by doing something like this-- making the disgusting appear beautiful, or at least attaching this ideological intent upon the object (because everyone sees things differently and perceives in their own language)-- through art, people can actually change existence, that is to say that by smearing my armpits with delicious, beautiful, brightly colored elements of Mexican food I am essentially transforming them into something beautiful, making an artistic statement which says I will NOT listen to those who claim that the armpits, especially those of a hairy male, are disgusting. Or that they smell bad or that they are "sweaty and yucky". By smearing my armpits with something I hold dear I am actually eliminating the irony which says, "Oh his armpits are smelly and disgusting, yet they appear so beautiful smeared with Mexican food" because by smearing them with salsa, nacho cheese sauce, guacamole, refried beans or what have you I am saying they were beautiful to begin with! This is a position which says I am not being ironic but that I am making a statement and that this statement can also be perceived as a metaphor for many broader ideas. As irony, the depictions may be amusing but as a political statement they are more directly useful.

This idea of smearing my armpits with Mexican as a political statement was engrained in me since I was a child, when I heard my aunt tell me on a trip to Chicago as we passed through Gary, Indiana. She said, "Oh we are approaching Gary, Indiana, Taco! Please hold your nose because Gary is 'the armpit of the world'." So I held my nose, taking my trusted aunt's warning literally, expecting to see a city full of nasty, smelly armpit hairs, sweat dripping down on the streets like rain, and the first thing I saw were black people walking the streets. They were everywhere and due to my aunt's reference to Gary being an "armpit", I wondered why she hated black people so much? "Were black people bad?" I wondered. Then later in life I heard someone say that Korea is the "armpit of Asia" and as a sort of last straw someone told me--someone who had never even been there-- while were sitting in a Mexican restaurant in the U.S.that Mexico was the "armpit of North America". That's when I'd had enough bigotry, ignorance and racial intolerance in my life. That's when I ripped my fucking shirt off in the restaurant. I dipped my hand into a bowl of salsa and spread it on my armpits then I reached over the table and stuck my hairy, salsa smeared underarm into the guy's face and said, "Well, if Mexico is such a fucking armpit then why don't you lick the goddam Mexican salsa from my armpit, you bigoted loser?"

All I'm trying to say here is that there a million ways to see good in what on the surface can appears as gross or disgusting. I consider this symbol of an armpit smeared in Mexican food to be a critical element in my creative vision. I do it because I feel I have to and because I enjoy it, because I feel that by doing so and talking about it I shall come to some sort of mystical insight that I can use in my art. That I can make a political statement against racial intolerance. That I can be entertaining. There is a certain element of society that actually might find my armpits arousing and that's fine, too. So in essence I really don't have a singular philosophy or statement to make by my Mexican food-smeared armpit depictions except to indirectly exhibit the fact that the possibilities of how they can be perceived are infinite. The variations of different types of delicious Mexican foods and their ingredients, combined with all their rich, vivid colors offer a wonderful palette from which to paint a meaningful, artistic, philosophical, political and mystical message upon that which is often considered an unpleasant place, namely, the human armpit, especially that of the male. By engaging in this continuing activity I hope to make a contribution to our understanding of the human condition by adding new elements to the ever-evolving symbolic language with which we use to understand it.