GA Interviews “OUT” Artist Michael Breyette

I learned about Michael Breyette a couple of years ago when I was doing my research online and I found his amazing erotic paintings. It was love at first sight. Every time I saw a frame I fell more and more in love. When you are gay and you see all these glorious naked men we can feel lust and pleasure and Michael Breyette has the talent to make us feel good looking at a bunch of men ready for us. Gay art is wonderful and more gay artists as Michael are coming out.

Michael is a full-time artist who specializes in erotic illustrations of naked or semi-clothed men. His work has appeared in several magazine features and gay romance novels and his first book, Summer Moved On.

Bruno Gmunder has now produced a 2008 calendar of Michael’s images and here we introduce you to the artist and the man in his entire dimension. Michael works in his studio located in Worcester, Massachusetts; It’s there where his inspiration comes and he can work on his passion: the nude male body. Good for him and good for us. I hope you enjoy the interview as I did.

Antonio Capurro: Hi Michael. I heard about the art of Michael Breyette a few years ago and when I saw your painting for first time I thought, “this is amazing”. And I bet gay people know about your art as well. You are very well known.

Michael Breyette: It’s hard to tell, definitely more and more people are becoming aware of my work. I have a following but I am not sure the size.

Antonio Capurro: I bet there are tons of them worldwide for sure

Michael Breyette: I do get emails and orders from around the globe

Antonio Capurro: How do you feel knowing people from so far away send you emails about how inspiriting your art is for them? After all is such a great thing to have gay artists.

Michael Breyette: It’s strange but great! It’s odd to be someone inspiration or to have created a piece of artwork that moves and connects with total strangers. I have had letters from young guys who identify with my work and help them deal with being gay and/or coming out.

Antonio Capurro: That is very good, try to help young gay people trough the art but I am sure it was not in your mind when you started to paint erotic illustration of semi clothed or naked men…

Michael Breyette: oh not at all. I actually paint for myself and think that’s what most artists do. Sometimes I have a particular idea or emotion I want to convey but it’s just me expressing myself. The fact that others resonate with what I’m doing is great. I suppose it’s therapy for me, and it just happens to click with other people too. Of course, celebrating the male physique is part of my motivation as well. Art can be just sheer beauty as well, I certainly I am not one of those guys that believe has to be some profound meaning it a work of art. It’s just a reflection of the artist and his perception of the world.

Antonio Capurro: I enjoyed and I admire your artwork and I agree with you that most of the artists paint for them but when I see your painting I can find some kind of revolutionary and progressive expression since we are talking always about gay rights. Art and politics

Michael Breyette: Yes, well I paint from my perspective and I’m a gay guy living in the U.S. so politics is part of the world around me and it inspires what I do sometimes.

Antonio Capurro: How do you see gay rights with a new president coming to rule your country?

Michael Breyette: I think things are moving forward. Certainly things will be better and have better progress with Obama as president. The other guy has hitched himself to the religious right and that’s not good for achieving a free and equal America. Anybody who puts their religious beliefs before another’s liberty is not very patriotic or American in my eyes.

Antonio Capurro: I know people in Unites States are asking for a change. I wonder when I see politicians talking about rights and gay people can’t get married, as they want. Do you have a partner? Are you thinking about getting married one day?

Michael Breyette: Marriage is something I never thought possible my whole life, it’s a new concept. I don’t know if it’s for me. It’s a big step and I don’t know at this point. But it’s nice to have the option

Antonio Capurro: Maybe because growing in a straight world we didn’t have the new models but now we have

Michael Breyette: True. Things have actually changed quite quickly for gays in the last couple decades. We’ve gone from being in the closet to on TV, to the wedding chapel in my lifetime and with all the attention comes negativity too, but yes it’s better to be able to be who you are and out.

Antonio Capurro: You are a gay artist and able to express your feelings and emotions with your art. I read in your profile’s site that your art is not all about sex, but is sex and erotic your main subjects and inspiration? Sometimes I think gay men are kind stigmatized as very sexual people.

Michael Breyette: The part sex plays in my artwork has to do with my feelings that sexuality especially gay sexuality is repressed by mainstream society. Also in artwork, a simple nude female is more easily accepted by the general public that a nude male…a nude male is going to cause more controversy and is more likely to be labeled pornographic but I think my work is more about the beauty of men, their lives and their loves and that we’re just like everyone else. It’s only the sex that makes us ‘different’.

Antonio Capurro: But now you can find gay magazines, art galleries featuring gay art work, erotic books as your Summer moved on, calendars as Dieux du Stade and open art festivals, but you are right a full frontal female nude is easily accepted than a full frontal male and for sure sometimes. I wanna see the whole thing as I saw in your first self portrait. Which I should say, Very Nice!

Michael Breyette: blush, thanks

Antonio Capurro: LOL

Michael Breyette: Male erotica certainly is out there, but its stays within a certain circle.

Antonio Capurro: Why is a man showing his penis in gay art labeled as pornographic? I don’t agree with people that see in that way.

Michael Breyette: neither do I.

Michael Breyette: It’s one of societies hang ups. Some cultures regard the male genitalia as an acceptable symbol of fertility.

Antonio Capurro: You are right and for them that’s all right. People should be more like them.

Michael Breyette: Right…but cultures don’t change overnight.

Antonio Capurro: No, it’s a slow process

Michael Breyette: Artists don’t only reflect a culture they also can enlighten.

Antonio Capurro: I read about your beginning as a gay artist and you doing people’s portrait since you came out to a friend and she said you were enough good to make a career, but before that when you were a child and a teenager was male art in your mind, maybe when you saw some naked male magazines or some painting?

Michael Breyette: Well as a kid I always liked to paint and draw. So as I became aware of my sexuality the male form became a fascinating subject for me.

Antonio Capurro: So it has to be with you discovering your sexuality. How did it come out for you?

Michael Breyette: I remember at about 12 years old I started noticing the bodies on the other guys, the older boys. At first I told myself it was just admiration or envy. That I was drawn to them because I wanted to have a body like that myself. Eventually I realized it was more than that, mostly because I was becoming aroused too.

Antonio Capurro: and you started to draw them and at the same time feeling good because you could express your art and besides your personal emotions so it happened when you found you were gay?

Michael Breyette: I started to draw male figures perhaps in high school. But many of the pieces I did that I showed to anybody else were not sexual. I often did hunky heroes in a fantasy or sci-fi setting often with a female counterpart. I didn’t come out until many years later. During that time I actually lost some interest in my artwork because I always had to come up with some kind of subterfuge/excuse to be painting a half naked man and it just became tiresome. I couldn’t really paint what I wanted because I didn’t want to ‘out’ myself so I became frustrated. Fortunately, better late than never, I decided I couldn’t spend my whole life that way. I moved away to a more accepting environment and found friends and place where I could be my true self.

Antonio Capurro: Then since you came out as a gay artist you didn’t need to hide nothing and you were brave to make that and show the world your fantastic art. I am very curious, did you paint your first lovers or the guys you wanted to kiss or sleep with in that time? And who was your comic heroes or sci fi man?

Michael Breyette: I was really drawn to capturing the male physique at that time more than likenesses. I kind of kept my love life and art separate. I didn’t have any particular hero characters. I really liked to study the book covers by artists like Boris Vallejo, Michael Whelan, Rowena, etc. they were beautiful and colourful, with muscular heroes. So I tried to mimic them.

Antonio Capurro: So they were inspiration for your art.

Michael Breyette: yes definitely.

Antonio Capurro: What artists do you admire?

Michael Breyette: there are quite a few. They have inspired me at different times and in different ways. I like the work of BEAU, Kent, Robert W. Richards, Tom Jones, also Tom of Finland; Steven Walker etc. have been inspirational to me.

Antonio Capurro: I saw their sites in your blog and when I went into them I enjoyed them so much. You said you kind of kept your love life and art separate but sometimes it is very common thing in painters to put to their lovers or partners. So would you ever do that?

Michael Breyette: I wouldn’t say never. I only have one lover and I think he has reservations about appearing in one of my works

Antonio Capurro: I bet if one day he decides to pose your audience will enjoy the hunk LOL

Michael Breyette: hehe…well it will probably be anonymous, so no one will actually know it’s him. I might let him know it’s him afterwards.

Antonio Capurro: only you and him

Michael Breyette: well certainly only me!

Antonio Capurro: Do you guys live together? Is he out of the closet too?

Michael Breyette: We don’t live together, but we live close by. He’s out but he’s also a proper professional, so appearing in my art would not be the best thing.

Antonio Capurro: I understand. How does living in the same town but in different places work?

Michael Breyette: It’s has its upsides and downsides. I really enjoy having my own space. I never lived alone when I was younger.

Antonio Capurro: You moved to Massachusetts years ago. Have you ever come back to your birth town?

Michael Breyette: I haven’t been back in quite some time.

Antonio Capurro: Do you miss it?

Michael Breyette: not really

Antonio Capurro: Do you think a young gay artist could come out right now and go ahead without hiding who he is without problems? What advice would you give them?

Michael Breyette: Certainly. It depends on ones situation. If you’re pretty sure your parents are gonna throw you out on the street and you have no place to go…perhaps you should wait and come up with a plan.

Antonio Capurro: Did your parents and family know about your wonderful art?

Michael Breyette: I am sure they know now, but it’s not really ever talked about.

Antonio Capurro: Why not? They don’t agree with you being gay?

Michael Breyette: That’s also not talked about. It’s been a distant relationship since I moved to Massacusetts. They’re rather ‘old school’ and not too accepting.

Antonio Capurro: If I would be straight I would be proud to have a son like you so talented but if I would be a gay parent I would ask you to paint men pleaseeeee. LOL

Michael Breyette: hahaha

Antonio Capurro: Do you and your partner think to settle down and to have a family one day?

Michael Breyette: Neither of us really have a desire to have kids. I don’t like most peoples. LOL

Antonio Capurro: LOL you want him only for you

Michael Breyette: sure

Antonio Capurro: where do you find the models for your paintings?

Michael Breyette: Well most the figures in my works aren’t real individuals. I create them by referencing several images and imagination.

Antonio Capurro: Will we see military men or a gay family in your artwork? I know Christmas is coming and I would like a naked Santa Claus? What are your next projects? What will we see from Michael Breyette next?

Michael Breyette: Well I am finished with my Christmas piece, and will be releasing it soon. I’ve already ordered Christmas cards of it, so those will be available. I’ve just stated another piece, with a fall and football theme so we’ll see how that goes…other than that I don’t plan too far ahead, I like to do what I’m in the mood to do. You can always check out my website or my blog to see what I’m working on.

Antonio Capurro: I always do Michael yummy!!

Michael Breyette: Hopefully the book of short stories based on my artwork will be coming out in the next few months or early ‘09.

Antonio Capurro: I remember the short stories because I sent a couple. Hope to see that soon.

Michael Breyette: It’s with the publisher and editor right now. If all goes well, perhaps there will be a second volume. I hope so

Antonio Capurro: They will do a great job too. Let me tell you I enjoyed this interview very much.

Michael Breyette: thank you. I enjoyed it too. Thanks for the opportunity and invitation. Have a great night Toni!

Antonio Capurro: Good night Mike!

Antoino Capurro is a freelance writer living in Peru. If you’d like, you can check out more of him at antoniocapurro.blogspot.com.

Also, check out Michael at michaelbreyett.blogspot.com!