Fruitful Fruits

fruit (froot), n., pl fruits,(esp. collectively) fruit,v. -n 1. any product of vegetable growth useful to men or animals. 2. Bot. a. the developed ovary of a seed plant with its contents or accessory parts, as the pea pod, nut, tomato, pineapple, etc. b. the edible part of a plant developed from a flower with an accessory tissues, as the peach, mulberry, banana, etc. c. the spores and accessory organs of a cryptogam. 3. anything produced or accruing; product, result, or effect; return or profit. 4. Slang. a male homosexual. -v.i., v.t. 5. to bear or cause to bear fruit: The tree fruits in late summer. Pruning will sometimes fruit a tree. [ME OF L, fruct(us) enjoyment, proceeds, fruit (n. use of ptp. of frui to enjoy)] -fruit'like', adj.

The originals of these pieces have text etched into the glass of the frames. Gallery spot lights cast shadows of the text onto the images. On this web page, click on each image to reveal the text.

Fruitful Fruit I - Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) Leonardo da Vinci has been considered the universal genius for his abilities as an artist, architect, engineer, and scientist. The illegitimate son of a Florentine notary and a peasant girl, da Vinci became the quientessential "Renaissance man," with acclaimed works like Madonna of the Rocks (1483-86), the now much deteriorated Last Supper fresco (1495-98), and the mysterious smiling Mona Lisa (1503). At the age of twenty-four, da Vinci was accused (and acquitted) of sodomy with a 17-year-old male prostitute named Jacopo Saltarelli. Throughout his life Da Vinci was devoted to a number of beautiful young men whom he made his pupils or assistants. Undoubtedly his favorite was Gian Giacomo Caprotti, who was "adopted" by da Vinci at the age of ten. Caprotti was nicknamed Salai (Little Devil) for his roguish behavior. And although Salai was described in da Vinci's journals as a  thieving, lying, obstinate  glutton, he continued to receive da Vinci's undivided affection. The two remained inseperable companions for nearly twenty-six years. In a posthumous manuscript written around 1560 entitled Gli Sogni, Lomazzo referred to the relationship of the two in this fictional dialogue between da Vinci and Phidias: Leonardo:...Salai, whom in life I loved more than all the others, who were several. Phidias: Did you perhaps play with him the game in the behind that Florentines love so much? Leonardo: And how many times! Have in mind that he was a most beautiful young man, especially about fifteen. Phidias: Are you not ashamed to say this? Leonardo: Why ashamed? There is no matter of more praise than this among people of merit... Understand that masculine love is solely the product of merit which joins together men of diverse feelings of friendship so that they may, from a tender age, arrive at manhood, stronger friends... The Gli Sogni is now in the British Museum.

Fruitful Fruit II - Tennessee Williams (1911-1983) Tennessee Williams was one of the great American playwrights of the 20th century with many masterpieces such as The Glass Managerie (1945), A Streetcar Named Desire (1947), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955), and Suddenly Last Summer (1958). Although Williams had several relationships in his lifetime, his most important one was with Frank Merlo, the sea merchant whom he met in 1949. Williams described Merlo as "so close to life!... He gave me the connection to day-to-day and night-to-night living. To reality. He tied me down to earth." Williams' brother, Dakin, recalls their relationship: "In addition to the sex part, which was mutually good, and the genuine affection they had for each other, they were probably more complementary than most male-female partners. Merlo was... a steady influence; he was competent at all the everyday chores of life, at which Tennessee was hopeless... He did... everything, leaving Tennessee free to do nothing but write." Their relationship lasted for fourteen years, until Merlo's death from lung cancer in 1963. Merlo's death caused serious psychic damage to Williams and he found it increasingly difficult to write in the later years, having to rely more and more heavily on coffee, drugs, and alcohol to jump-start his imagination. Williams never hid his homosexuality and came out publicly for the first time on David Frost's television show in January 1970, declaring, "I've covered the waterfront."

Fruitful Fruit III - Eleanor Roosevelt (1884-1962) Known as the "first lady of the world" because of her interest in international politics and her sympathy for the underpriviledged of all nations, Eleanor Roosevelt proved to be one of the most controversial first ladies of our time. An outspoken activist for women's rights, world peace, and the plight of the downtrodden, in 1933, she was the first president's wife to ever give a press conference. Although loyal and supportive of her husband, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, she did not get the emotional support she needed from the marriage and had to rely on her close friends for it, many of whom were women. Roosevelt's strongest support and emotional friendship came from Lorena Hickok, one of the best news reporters of the time. They conversed daily during the White House years via phone or mail, and Hickok was able to provide Roosevelt with shrewd advice and political insights. Their relationship lasted well after the presidency and the two women remained devoted friends until Roosevelt's death in 1962. According to Dr. William Turner Levy in his The Extraordinary Mrs. R - A Friend Remembers Eleanor Roosevelt, Roosevelt introduced Lorena Hickok to him at their initial meeting in 1953, "Miss Hickok is an old friend, a newspaper-woman from the White House days, and I'm devote to her." Many of the letters and correspondence between the two survived. The text seen here comes from Roosevelt's letter to Hickok written on 5 March 1933, the first evening after FDR's inauguration. Two days later, on Hickok's fortieth birthday, Roosevelt wrote, "Hick darling, All day I've thought of you & another birthday I will be with you, & yet tonite you sounded so far away & formal. Oh! I want to put my arms around you. I ache to hold you close. Your ring is a great comfort. I look at it and think she does love me, or I wouldn't be wearing it."

Fruitful Fruit IV - Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564) Michelangelo (Michelagniolo) is known world-wide as a Renaissance sculptor, painter, and architect, with such works as the monumental nude of David (1501-1505), the unforgettable painted ceiling of the Sistine Chapel (1508-1512), and the acclaimed St. Peter's of Rome (1546-1564). Few, however, know he was also a poet and that he left behind over three hundred sonnets, madrigals and poems dealing with universal themes such as love and longing, time and death, and art and salvation. Many of his poetry dealing with love and longing were written for his male friends. However, since his death until recent time, the pronoun has been changed in the translation to hide his homosexuality. In 1532, at the age of fifty-seven, Michelangelo met the young nobleman Tommaso de' Cavalieri, to whom he was devoted the rest of his life. Michelangelo wrote numerous sonnets and madrigals and sent many drawings to Cavalieri during their long friendship. In one drawing, Michelangelo portrayed himself as Zeus in the disguise of an eagle, snatching up into the sky to Mount Olympus, Cavalieri as the beautiful shepherd boy Ganymede, to be Zeus' wine bearer. The text seen here is an excerpt from a madrigal written by Michelangelo for Cavalieri between 1534 and 1536. According to James M Saslow in his The Poetry of Michelangelo - An Annotated Translation, "my longstanding fault" refers to Michelangelo's susceptibility to love. It appears that their relationship was a platonic one, in which Michelangelo was the adoring older figure, and Cavalieri was the unattainable youth. Nevertheless, their friendship lasted for thirty-two years until Michelangelo's death in 1564. Cavalieri was at his bedside at the time of death.

Fruitful Fruit V - Virginia Woolf (1882-1941) British author Virginia Woolf was a leading figure of the literary Bloomsbury Group at the turn of the twentieth century. In 1912, Virginia Stephen married Leonard Woolf. Their marriage was one of mutual respect and emotional support, in which sexual relations were minimal, since Woolf found the idea of sex with a man "distasteful." Together they established the Hogarth Press, which published Woolf's novels, as well as other important writers such as E.M. Forster, T.S. Eliot and Katherine Mansfield. The greatest love of Woolf's life seems to have been Vita Sackville-West. According to their correspondence, on 17 December 1926, Woolf went to spend three nights with Sackville-West at Long Barn. It was the beginning of their love-affair. It was in honor of Sackville-West that Woolf wrote Orlando, a Biography, published in October 1928. The main character in the story, which spans from 1500 to early 20th century, started out as a man and becomes a woman. On first reading of Orlando, Sackville-West wrote, "I am completely dazzled, bewitched, enchanted, under a spell. It seems to me the loveliest, wisest, richest book that I have ever read..." In a letter written to Sackville-West on 3 January 1929, Woolf penned, "Vita's moon is full. But its true that the image of ones loves forever changes: and gradually from being a sight, becomes a sense... Love is so physical... Do you really love me? Much? passionately not reasonably?" Woolf's other known works include The Voyage Out (1915), Night and Day (1919), Jacob's Room (1922), Mrs. Dalloway (1925), To the Lighthouse (1927), A Room of One's Own (1929), and The Waves (1931). The text seen here is taken from the last chapter of A Room of One's Own.

Fruitful Fruit VI - Walt Whitman (1819-1892) Walt Whitman was one of the greatest American poets and composed the book of poems Leaves of Grass. It was first published in 1855, and Whitman continued revising it the rest of his life through eight editions, the final one published in 1892. In the original version, Whitman declared the intention of the book, "The Americans of all nations at any time upon the earth have probably the fullest poetic nature. The United States themselves are essentially the greatest poem." In the third edition published in 1862, Whitman grouped poems of overtly homosexual desire, celebrating the "love of comrades," into a section entitled Calamus. The text seen here are the first stanzas from the poem We Two Boys Together Clinging from this section. Whitman formed several close attachments with men in his life. The most notable was with Peter Doyle, an eighteen-year-old trolley-car conductor he met in Washington DC after the Civil War. Some of their correspondence from between 1868 and 1880 survived, and revealed Whitman's intense feelings for Doyle, with such closing phrases as, "Many, many loving kisses to you." Doyle's loyalty and love for Whitman is also attested in one such letter. On 27 July, 1870, during a visit to his mother's home in Brooklyn, Whitman answered Doyle, "I have never dreamed you made so much of having me with you, nor that you could feel so downcast at losing me. I foolishly thought it was all on the other side." Doyle later recounted their first meeting, "We felt to each other at once. I was a conductor. The night was very stormy... Walt had his blanket---it was thrown around his shoulder---he seemed like an old sea captain. He was the only passenger, it was a lonely night... I went in the car. We were familiar at once---I put my hand on his knee---we understood. He did not get out at the end of the trip--in fact went all the way back with me... From that time on we were the biggest sort of friends."

Fruitful Fruits is an ongoing series to commemorate some of the gays and lesbians of history. Although they may not have identified themselves as gay or lesbian in the same sense as today, each of these people had long term relationships with members of the same sex. Each made significant contributions to society. History masked many of the details of their lives, and only through careful research has the truth finally surfaced.

I hope that people will realize that, yes, there were, and are, many gays and lesbians who contribute to society and can serve as role models.

Limited edition (1-5) photolitho prints, 22" x 15" in a 28" x 22" frame.