This was one of the first paintings I did for this My American Dream body of work. When I was creating the Hamlet 1999 series, Dean became one of the iconographic references for the figure of Hamlet. I have painted and drawn pictures of him since college, and now I’m creating a graphic novel about his life for the great comics publisher Fantagraphics.

Many people still don’t know this, but Dean was almost completely gay, and had many documented experiences and lovers, as well as being one of the greatest actors of all time, and an icon for rebellion in America. I started long ago, before grad school, to paint pictures of porn stars, as they were “cheap and easy” models, already printed in a magazine, therefore, by painting them, I wasn’t objectifying them firsthand—they had already been objectified by the original photographer… I was also coming out and felt the non-subjugated world of “free to be you and me” lovers were a utopic fantasy to suture into. Growing older, I realized that my favorite artists and actors do a better job fulfilling the role of a model—in film stills, it captures a performance (or a genius’s aura) where the persona is concentrating on being the role they stand in for, or just being themselves as great artists. By painting them, I can have some of the best models in the world posing for me in scenes from reality and from films that have allegorical resonance to me, and hopefully, by extension, to our times.

Hopefully, this image of Dean captures some of his rebel spirit, which hopefully is more than just about sexuality, and about the fighting against repression and subjugation.