Mario Elías Jaroud

#KindaSuperArtHistory // 🌸💞Self-Portrait as "The Swing" by Jean-Honoré Fragonard, 1767💞🌸 A Rococo masterpiece, this painting exhibits all of the fluffy frivolity of this era of art history. From the subjects' dress to the incorporation of a fluffy yappy pooch (clock Sophie sitting in?! 💞😩💞), to the whimsical soft features of the greenery, to playfulness of the female character (even while being perved on by the man in the brush at the lower left hand side). The putto statue above him holds his finger up in silence, possibly covering for the pervert. This painting was supposedly commissioned by a courtier to depict him and his mistress. He was the man in the bushes, she the woman on the swing, and he requested the man that is pulling her ropes to be the bishop, however Fragonard made him a layman instead (good lookin out, Fraggy) 😂😜 Fragonard eventually lost all of his private patrons to the French Revolution, when they were all beheaded, Henny. He exiled himself and once he returned to Paris, he was all but completely forgotten as the art community had moved to more substantive work and away from the surface value beauty of Rococo. Sad day, Fraggy. . . . . #gayart #gayillustration #illustrator #illustration #queerart #photography #portraiture #portrait #homage #arthistory #photographer #digitalart #fineart #fragonard #rococo #french #frenchrevolution #theswing #digitalart #digitalartist #collage #homoeroticart

We gave Botticelli’s “Birth of Venus” a v important update. 😘🥳 @sheacoulee and her drag daughters @bambibankscoulee @kenziecoulee @_khloepark // design retouching and editing done by me // 📸 raw portraits shot by @danpolyak // hair by my boo @nathanjuergensen // stoning by the talented wonder @michaelbrambila // I started my self-portrait series to Queer the male gaze and share stories of Women and Queer people in Art History I loved and thought were lesser known, putting a brown sissy in place of the subjects and artist. What better evolution of this tradition than to create an image of Black Excellence within a celebrated masterpiece. Not to mention Botticelli was a big ol butt-sexin ‘Mo too! 👏 I am so so SO proud of this image and the beauty exuding from each spirit within it. I’ve know Shea since we were baby gays in the Chicago scene, and I am floored by the gorgeous individual they continue to be, inside and out. CROWN THE DOLL, @rupaulofficial 👑

#KindaSuperArtHistory // 🍂🍇 Self-Portrait as Mario Minniti in Caravaggio’s “Bacco” 🍇🍂 // As I previously discussed in my post recreating “Boy with a Basket of Fruit,” it is no secret that Caravaggio was a very active homosexual man. The model in this painting, Mario Minniti, is Caravaggio’s long time lover and model for many of his paintings. He is seen here, posing as Bacchus, Roman god of wine, fertility and religious ecstasy, among other things (his Greek counterpart being Dionysus). Bacchus is seen, with flushed cheeks and wine stained hands, offering the viewer a glass of wine with his left hand, while undoing the tie on his robes with his right. OG THOT-ERY, BITCH. Caravaggio accentuated the youthfulness of the face while bringing out more maturity in the musculature of the body. I’m sensing some roots of our Gay Man complex here lol. I adore Caravaggio and his batshit crazy life. I have a few more of his pieces coming to talk more about this talented, yet flawed, Queer creator 😘🥰 . . . #selfportraiture #fineartphotography #selfportrait #caravaggio #chiaroscuro #baroque #baroquepainting #italian #art #fineart #portraitphotography #arthistory #gayart #gayartist #queerart #queerartist #digitalart #digitalpainting

Guess who finished the first draft of their first novel? 😇😏🥳 it’s still a mess and needs a ton of work, but this lil Queer bb has written a novel length manuscript 🙌 I took some major time away from socials to focus on it, but mainly I needed to focus on healing myself. Hit some of my lowest lows in the last two years, but I’m clawing my way back up! ❤️‍🩹❤️‍🩹❤️‍🩹 this book is about loss and how that shifts our identity, and writing it helped me process a lot of the loss I experienced in that time. Anyways, here are some cute shots of Joni and Lula and me in the office we locked ourselves in for the last three months to finish this thang! 🥲

🔥780 words🔥 was hoping to do more today, but something isn’t nothing! 😘 heres a post workout boomerang and post writing selfie.

😮‍💨 964/500!!!! 👏🥲 I was so tired after work, and did not think I would make it to 500 words today, but… best word count so far this week! 🥹 I had an idea about the opening of the book and I think this lil seed might sprout. Gonna unwind and then hit the sheets. Love you, hoochies. 😘

Earlier this year I had the ~unreal~ opportunity to do a 3 month writing mentorship with one of my favorite authors & an all-around wonder of the world: Saleem Haddad @salhad He helped guide my story from an over-analyzed and too-structured outline to something that is alive and breathing that is surprising me every step of the way. I am sad to say that I have hit obstacles in life this year that have crushed my novel writing productivity at times, but in an attempt to move forward and reignite that momentum, I wanted to share something with you all. Yesterday was Father’s Day. I am not a father… even though Mikey and I thought we would be. We experienced a major loss in January that I am still processing and coming to terms with. We have an empty nursery that we thought would be filled w stress and crying and laughter and love. I have moments of being not ok. I have moments of being hopeful. I have moments when I hold myself back from doing anything at all. Coincidentally, my novel is about loss and finding yourself again, and I think that has been tough to confront while living through it. I’m hoping to share my progress here in a way to keep me accountable and productive in my writing, even when I feel like there is no point. Even when my day job is stressful and my emotions are fucking my mind up. My goal is to write 500 words MINIMUM a day, so I will post that progress here - sort of as a journal. I know this is a departure from my visual art, and that some of my followers are just here to see my butt in a fine art setting haha but I really love this story I’ve been crafting and the characters that live in it, and I want to give them a chance to see the end of everything. So today it begins again! ❤️‍🩹 880/500 words 🥹🙏🏼

Happy Pride, hoochiemamas! 🧡💛Self-Portrait as “Les Demoiselles d'Avignon” by #PabloPicasso, 1907 // I wanted to revisit this one to add a little dimension, and I still am not at a place mentally to pose in new ones, but I want to maintain my editing skills and also show how proud I am of this hairy back, big butt and these stretch marks 😘 Les Demoiselles is arguably the seminal proto-cubist piece, directing the art world into the direction of cubism & “modern” art as a more all encompassing movement. Discussing #Demoiselles would be nothing without mentioning Picasso’s feud w Matisse! This is one of my favorite art historical butting of heads, and this piece may have been a tactic of Picasso’s to steal attention away from Matisse (which it 100% did). #LesDemoiselles is noticeably flat and disjointed, w a hostility and unease that # Picasso tried to crescendo to a “savage force” by discarding beauty ideals and appropriating African tribal masks, removing their cultural value and context by slapping them into a brothel setting... #problematicMuch? He painted these five women, prostitutes on Carrer d’Avinyó in Barcelona, removing their femininity and replacing it with a hollow consternation. In my research, I found no real evidence as to the identities of these women or a possible source the masks themselves were appropriated directly from; while obviously invoking 'Primitivism,' Picasso says these are ~not influenced~ by African Art. 🙄 This guy literally said “African Art? Never heard of it!” when asked about the influence on the painting. 🤬 In this recreation, I decided not to use actual masks, opting rather to appropriate Picasso’s creations directly, not contributing to the cultural theft of “primitivism” lol I'll say it again, Picasso was an asshole. @themuseumofmodernart

🧜🏼‍♀️@denalifoxx as LA SIRENA // Quien quiere jugar lotería? 💗😈💗 #mermay is in full effect! I am beyond thrilled to have met and worked w Denali this week. Quite honestly one of the sweetest people I’ve ever met 🥺 We had been planning to do a recreation since last year and this idea she came to me with was beyond perfect. My favorite part about “Queering the Male Gaze” has been identity and celebrating our queerness and culture, so this fit in flawlessly. The idea of the Siren as a feminine figure of doom destruction of men is really the vibe rn. #LaSirena #Loteria #denalifoxx

Up next for the winners we have my super dear friends @chubi76 and @carlclemonshopkins 💗😭💗 these two brilliant lights shine extremely bright solo, but together they are a supernova😱😍 Chubi won the first printing contest from my book and asked to be transformed into American Gothic by LGBTQ ICON Grant Wood. You can see this original piece at @artinstitutechi ! I also had the pleasure of shooting these beauties for my solo show Perennial Beauty, which was all about celebrating the resilient and regal Individuals of the Queer community. If you wanna check that out, I have some copies of the collection at KindaSuper.com!

💚💙 @boyana.aleksova as “Las Dos Fridas” by #FridaKahlo 1939 💙💚// I chose a few people at random that ordered the first printing of my book “Queering the Male Gaze” to turn into their favorite paintings! First up we have the immensely talented artist @boyana.aleksova who asked to be turned into this masterpiece by #LGBTQ ICON Frida Kahlo! Boyana sent me photos she took of her face, upper body and arms, and I reconstructed the garments, poses, backdrop etc using #photoshop #digitalpainting and #collage. This was super ambitious and i am SO HAPPY w how it turned out. 💗😭💗 I’m thinking of opening up commissions to anyone wanting to turn into a #ArtHistory masterpiece of their choosing! Hit me up if this might interest you 🙈🥰

🔥💔🔥Self-portrait as Elizabeth Siddal in Dante Gabriel Rosetti’s “Beata Beatrix,” 1864-70 / The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. Yes, ladies, another group of guys deciding how you should look and be portrayed. The rules established in their manifesto didnt directly apply to how Women were painted; that happened naturally as the group produced the art in isolation with each other. The PRB, above all else, wanted to produce art that was unquestionably good without being conventional relying on literary, historical& religious iconography, returning the practice to the time before Raphael, hence the namesake. Sounds good to me… a little preachy, but werk. This recreation is based on an ode to Elizabeth Siddal, Rosetti's lost love who passed away 2 years before this piece was started. It is an homage to Dante Alighieri's despair in his unrequited love & mourning for Beatrice Portinari in the "Vita Nuova." SYMBOLISM to a T, my honeys. Its jam-packed full of nods to an Art Historical Canon of loaded ammunition. The green&grey of her dress are symbolic of the colors of hope & sorrow, as well as love & life. The dove, a common transfiguration of the holy spirit and death is carrying opium poppies in its beak referencing Siddal's overdose, and is red to represent passion. In the background we see Love holding the dimming flame of Beatrice's/Lizzie's life & Dante looking over helplessly. Ponte Vecchio of Florence, where Alighieri's story takes place looms behind the trees. While I do love and respect the visual vocabulary they created to pay homage to the female form, part of me has to wonder if the soft yet simultaneously strong features are bordering on androgyny to give the Women power in a male chauvinistic sense… The serene faces even facing death might also be potentially damaging to the narrative of the strong Woman. Is it resolve or submission? It definitely could be related to or influenced by subconscious/preconceived chauvinistic notions or assumptions, AND to be quite perfectly honest the fact that these white straight men had the nerve to create a standard for how Women should be portrayed is problematic enough… NEXT!