"If you are going to tell people the truth, you had better make them laugh or they will kill you." Oscar Wilde

   The great Wilde (1854-1900), author of masterpieces including, The Picture of Dorian Gray & "The Importance of Being Earnest" could not make the police laugh about the truth of his homosexuality. Instead, the Judge "killed him" by imprisoning him in a way that led to his early death.

   Art often calls for telling hard truths. 

   My photographs of children or street scenes are easy truths. My pictures of nudes, even if they have hung in museums (which some have) represent hard truths.

   Since I believe the female form is the source of beauty I honor respectful portrayals, as did Amy, who would only pose for work she respected.

   In 2008 I hung this photograph in my office. A fellow executive complained. I was severely punished by the Board. 

   A favorite poem is "Love After Love" by Derek Wolcott: 

The time will come
when, with elation
you will greet yourself arriving
at your own door, in your own mirror
and each will smile at the other's welcome,

and say, sit here. Eat.
You will love again the stranger who was your self.
Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart
to itself, to the stranger who has loved you

all your life, whom you ignored
for another, who knows you by heart.
Take down the love letters from the bookshelf,

the photographs, the desperate notes,
peel your own image from the mirror.
Sit. Feast on your life.

    Organizational living can kill our truths. It forced some of mine into hiding. No longer.

   Older & bolder, I "love again the stranger" whose truth I long ignored. For me, a certain "feast" has begun.

   Some people may not like this picture. But no educated adult should be offended because the truth of this image lies in its decency. 

-Erie Chapman

Photograph, "Amy Seated – Study #3" 2008, by Erie