Continuing the theme of "alone together," I noticed these paintings by Walker:
They dramatize the time after the ecstatic moments of sexual joining, when the men return to their individual selves. In each, one man faces away from the viewer while the other is either asleep or turned inward. They seem caught in their own world, isolated from each other and from us, and yet they remain in the most intimate of circumstances: naked or almost so, in bed. They have returned to their isolation...and yet, they remain together. This painting, entitled "Parallel Dreams" illustrates this well:
The two men, in a post-coital slumber, sleep. And yet, their dreams, like their bodies, are parallel: separate but together, and thus one. **
Our inability to see the faces of these men and the clues they provide to their mood, keeps us at bay, keeps us guessing about their true feelings, while their obvious physical beauty draws us in: we are intrigued by their circumstances and invited to participate imaginatively. Thus, we, too, participate in the meditative mood of the pictures: separate but together.
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