comebackandseemeonceagain;givemesometimetoremindyouwhatit'slike,rightbytheplaceweusedtogo, portrait of Eddie and Jon, is part of the chosenfamily/lovers series exploring the nonbiological bonds and relationships between gay people, expanding on the idea of family as structures that build hope and resilience, chosen out of mutual love and support.

Drawing from Richard Avedon’s fashion ads of the early 1990s, John Singer Sargent's high society portraits, and Francis Bacon's paintings in warped environments, the sitters for this series are invited to pose in opposition to social norms as a form of resistance, play, and queering the act of posing. The subjects are reinterpreting and playing with popular fragrance advertisements, classical poses, nestled intimately on a couch. The morphed couch becomes like a sailboat, destabilizing traditional associations, shifting colors, blending into the flat color of the background: sailing into the void. The men are posed, laying on each other, tangled at the midsection, playing with eroticism and tongue-in-cheek sensual/sexual poses, creating a space of warmth, desire, and love. Playing with cultural, queer, and fetish identifiers, the men are dressed in sheer flower print shirts, lace, beaded necklaces, stockings, and sports socks and shorts. The body becomes home, and home lives within the body.

Jon, on the left, his leg becomes the wall and the couch, the vessel becomes the wall. All becomes one, one layer, one skin. On the floor by the right corner, the record player is a nod to dance culture and celebration. Introducing a queer/gay signifier, the record player’s lid has the word “patería,” which subverts a derogatory term for queer people and repurposes it for queer celebration.