In 1989, I was invited by Barbara Sahlman and Rick Barnett to produce a site-specific work for The Center Show, commemorating the 20th anniversary of Stonewall.  I was having an extremely difficult time deciding what I should paint for the show.  I asked my most reliable critic, my friend James Kantor, to look over some design ideas on which I had been working.  James looked up from the sketches and asked me, “What do you want to say?”  “I know that AIDS seems to have changed everything.  I understand why people are in despair over it,” I answered, “but the body is still beautiful, sex is still great, and love is still possible.” “Then say that,” James said, “That’s a great thing to say.”

Those words didn’t become part of the piece literally, but they are a statement of the spirit of the piece. The words that are actually illuminated in the painting are:

The painting is conceived as a holy icon of the sacredness of same-sex love.  The blue bedding bedecked with gold stars references the ceilings of Italian chapels of the Quattrocento.  Indeed, the decision to set the pair of figures among the stars is likewise meant to recall the moment in Genesis when God:

As a contemporary  “tongue in cheek” jab at the serious tone of the mural, in the upper left-hand corner of the composition, the waking figure’s right hand pushes back the pillow case to reveal the manufacturer’s warning label on the pillow:

The quote (from which the title of the painting is derived) is taken from the novel The Persian Boy by Mary Renault.  In her novel, Alexander the Great and his lover, Bagoas, a eunuch, ponder their heritage and their progeny.