An astute observer and recorder of life – Michael Kirwan (27th December 1953 – 26th May 2018)

27th May 2018, 12:08 pm

 

Michael Kirwan at Tom of Finland Art Fair, 2012


With a sad heart, we are letting you know that artist Michael Kirwan passed away peacefully on the morning of Saturday, 26th May 2018, in Los Angeles, California.

Hoist a glass and make a toast in celebration of the life of a great and unique man as well as an amazing artist.

Michael was born 27th December 1953. He lived a life filled with joys, passions, family, friends, and art. Michael resided in New York, New York; Miami, Florida; and most recently, Los Angeles, California. Creating his art was his most passionate activity, but he also enjoyed socializing, cooking, intimate encounters, movies, sharing his opinions, and being an astute observer and recorder of life.

While Michael’s artistic talents surfaced early, life had a way of forcing real-world responsibilities on a young Michael. Yes, he was married early in his life and was pleased to have fathered a son, Larry Kirwan. As Michael was reaching his late twenties, his marriage ended and he began a new, Queer life that brought comfort within himself and adventures that would make for raucous stories for decades to come.

Michael always had a gift for telling and writing stories, but it was his illustrations and drawings that would give his friends and fans the clearest window into Michael’s thoughts and his heart. His first published work of art appeared in PlayGuy magazine in 1980, and getting paid to create art was Michael’s sweetest dream come true. Through the late 1980s until the mid 2000s, Michael’s highly detailed and evocative art was published in more than 600 magazines. There were periods of the ’90s when Michael’s art appeared in as many as six different magazines per month. The art was Gay, Straight, fetish, hardcore, and promotional to illustrate fiction, comics, and real life. Michael was incredibly prolific and his talent grew and became more and more popular with fans, readers, and art collectors.

Michael’s works of art have appeared in galleries and exhibitions around the world. After moving to California, he spent a year as the Artist-in-Residence with Tom of Finland Foundation. Michael enjoyed an inspirational relationship with the work and history of  Tom and a very supportive relationship with the people of his Foundation who are dedicated to the education and preservation of erotic art for all artists. These years would provide Michael with the most important friendships and partnerships, and during this time, Michael created the best work of his life. Through that association, Michael appeared at internationally attended events and exhibitions that brought new admirers to his work and his grand persona as an artist. He was inducted into the Foundation’s Artist Hall of Fame in 2004.

Collectors with great taste and savvy expertise from across the globe have purchased Michael’s original works. After the adult magazine publishers faltered against the internet, Michael drew for his pleasure, to pay rent, and for fans commissioning unique and always interesting erotic scenes via his website KirwanArts.com. Michael always felt he was visually documenting every variety and scenario in Gay and Straight sexual activities. His inspirations for drawing his characters came from the everyday, regular people he would encounter on the streets, on the bus, throughout parks and markets, in seedy bars, and in dark alleys where names were not exchanged but furtive fun was found. Michael’s drawings exposed the fevered excitement and erotic beauty in every body and face. Michael always said he did not draw “pretty” guys because he knew regular guys had better sex.

Selections of Michael’s works have appeared in numerous books, but a highlight for him came in 2011 as a broad retrospective of his paintings was published in a monograph book titled Just So Horny. The obvious theme tying the works together was Michael’s obsessive attention to details, patterns, and backgrounds. The characters he drew were front and center, but Michael gave them life in a rich and colorful environment he painted on paper as he created the elaborate backstories in his head. Much of Michael’s work was created with fine-point watercolor pens, making thin lines and blending an abundance of colors and layers, to make fantasies filled with his humor and wry sense of style leaping from the page. Michael rarely drew in front of anyone because he preferred solitude as he worked hunched over an art pad straining and crossing his eyes as he would create minute details and repeating patterns as fabrics and tile works setting a stage for his horny creations.

Michael wanted everyone to buy erotic art (most especially his, of course) and hang it where it should be seen by all. His artwork was part of a recent museum show, TOM House: The Work and Life of Tom of Finland in Detroit.

In addition to his son, Michael is survived by his aunt, Joan Morey and her children Mark Morey and Christina Strain.

There will be A Celebration of the Life of Michael Kirwan
on Saturday, 30th June at TOM House.


READ “Erotic artist Michael Kirwan dies at 64” by Phillip Zonkel for Q Voice News

Published: 27th May 2018

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