2023, model E.M.

These are wieners, and I recently shared a drawing on social media that caused a bit of a ruckus.  The sketch is explicit, and I awoke to a smorgasbord of texts, comments, adoration, and jeers.  The experience led me to consider the difference between acceptable and taboo content.  Supreme Court Justice Potter Steward famously wrote, regarding the obscenity case of Jacobellis v. Ohio, that pornography is hard to define, but “I know it when I see it.”  It’s a brilliant, concise, vague, and memorable statement.  And it allows for indefinite societal interpretation.  Unfortunately, the precise interpretation is left to us, and it is often an individualized determination.  This post examines recent pieces in my series of explicit anatomical drawings and the line between art and pornography.

Art is the process of using one’s skills in creating objects to stimulate and engage the viewer, both visually and emotionally.  A pornographer would find this definition appropriate for his craft as well.  However, pornography presents scenarios of sexuality designed to elicit sensual pleasure and is not regarded as fine art.  Pornography is considered the depiction of the human body for the purpose of arousal.  But I would argue that any fine artist would desire to arouse the viewer, to stir an emotion, and to evoke strong feelings?

2022, model A.P.

The nude figure has been a recurring theme in fine art for centuries in paintings, sculptures, and now photography and film.  Academically, students start by drawing and painting the human body.

One common art world witticism is that “the only difference between art and pornography is a government grant.”

But is it?

In March 2023, a Florida school principal was forced to resign after parents labeled photos of Michelangelo’s David in the 6th grade art curriculum as “pornographic”.  Hope Carrasquilla of Tallahassee Classical School, a publicly funded charter school, said that after the fallout the board gave her the ultimatum to resign or be fired.

2022, model A.M.

The Simpsons is a TV show known to have storylines come remarkably true, and in 1990’s Itchy & Scratchy & Marge (Season 2 Episode 9), they did it again.  Marge becomes the head of a parental group advocating censorship in attempt to protect the children of Springfield.  But when the Statue of David comes to the local museum, her organization begs her lead the charge “against the abomination”.

“It’s filth! It graphically portrays parts of the human body which, practical as they may be,” the reverend’s wife Helen Lovejoy gasps, “are evil.”

Even in my most decorous manifestation, I cannot imagine how, especially in this day and age, that Michelangelo’s Statue of David could be considered pornography.

I would agree that my particular series of drawings are more complicated to classify.  Sure, I have drawn and painted live models in both academic and personal studio settings.  Working with live models presents unique problems and can often take hours to complete a single work.  But over the years I have also learned that when I have access to a participant, especially for a short amount of time, to just focus on the bullseye.

2022, model A.M.

When an artist renders a complete figure, the viewer’s eye goes straight to the kibbles and bits anyway.  Everyone knows it’s true. It is human nature.  A graceful nape of the neck or the curvature of an elbow is fine, but people zero in on the wee wees and the hoo hoos.

I find that those who pose for me generally love it.  In most cases, in the sketchbook, the session results in two drawings.  The first drawing is rather quick because after a bit of attention the model becomes aroused and the, um, pose changes, resulting in a turn of the page. This particular appendage can be difficult to reposition as it is known to have a mind of its own, especially while under the scrutiny of posing for a picture.

I have over 10,000 followers on Instagram, though my nephew says that there are a lot of bots. I am not sure what a bot is or why they want to follow me.  But anyway, I can post a “sketch of the day” that is unusual or interesting and be lucky to get a dozen likes.  By the time I got up the other morning I had a record number of likes, dozens of new followers, and a flood of direct messages ranging from “Have you lost your mind?” to “What is the @ of the model?”

2019, model C.R.

The two most scandalous paintings of the 19th Century were very different in nature.  In the Paris Salon of 1865, Edouard Manet’s Olympia shocked the art world.  There were other nudes in the exhibition but it was the way the prostitute was painted that outraged the public.  In the Paris Salon of 1884, John Singer Sargent’s depicted socialite Virginie Gautreau, now known as Madame X, boldly posing and fully clothed in a black dress.  Gautreau was scandalized as the strap of her gown suggested a sexual encounter and the painting went into hiding for 30 years.

Click this link for more about the two above paintings: TroysArt list of history’s 10 Most Shocking Paintings, and why.

We live in an age where spoiled rich girls like Kim Kardashian and Paris Hilton have become exponentially richer and more famous for self-made internet porn, Bill Clinton got blow jobs in the Oval Office and is tied to Jeffery Epstein, the King and Queen of England are known adulterers, and Hunter Biden has naked selfies with crack whores.  Yet somehow when Troy Broussard posts a sketch of a pecker on social media and it is beyond the pale of human decency.

2023, model S.

There is a certain vulgarity to these drawings in a way that leads the viewer away from a controlled comfort zone.  Perhaps the unexpected intimacy of the subject matter gives rise to the initial shock.

Did Helen Lovejoy’s assessment perfectly summarize the sentiments of mainstream Americans?  When compared to Europeans, Americans are more tolerant of violence with less acceptance of nudity, especially depictions of the human penis.

This was an interesting experiment because it made me think.  The drawing is art but deemed by some as unacceptable because of familiarity.

Here in this TroysArt entry are samples from my last few sketchbooks, enough samples to fill a page on my own self-financed website.  So I remind, THIS POST CONTAINS MATERIAL THAT SOME MIGHT DEEM OFFENSIVE.  VIEWER DISCRETION IS ADVISED.

2020, model C.R.

And with that warning, are drawings of masculinity, drawings of the male form, drawings of wieners, pickles, cocks, dicks, junk, schlongs, tally-whackers, tube steaks, and one-eyed trouser snakes.  And whether they are looked upon as erotic anatomical studies or abject smut, it is for each viewer to decide.

As for Justice Stewart’s celebrated quotation regarding the definition of obscenity, he said in 1981, despite all the solid rulings he made over his illustrious career, “I regret a little bit that if I’ll be remembered at all I’ll be remembered for that particular phrase.”

Obscenity has a way of sticking with people.

2023, model R.

2021, model A.M.

2022, model N.A.