Artist Wesley Harvey on homoeroticism, dinnerware, and bunnies

The rabbits had human penises?

Yes. I basically took away all the body parts but used all the same sexual references. But getting to San Antonio, the overt nature is wanting to come back more.

People seem ready for it.

They’re ready for it. And will it hurt me in the job market? Yeah, I think so, but I’m not necessarily looking for a fulltime tenure-track job anyway. So I want to make the work that I want to make.

What about your position as an educator at University of the Incarnate Word and Northwest Vista College? Do they care what you’re making? Are they aware of it?

Both schools are aware and they actually love it.

That’s great.

And my students, you know, when you go to class the first day and they see your name – God bless Google nowadays. The second day of class it’s like, “Oh, Wes, we saw your plates.” And so I ask, “What did you think?” And one student said, “Well I like them. But what if you had some with girls on ’em?” I’ve had students come up to me and say, “I want to do this project and I want it to have penises all over it or vaginas. Can I do that or will I get in trouble?” I let ’em do whatever they want. If they look at my website I can’t be like, “No, you can’t put a penis on that cup.” But as far as relating to gay pride … I think now at being 32, I’m very comfortable in who I am and what I’m making. These are images that sometimes can be a little bit much (even for me); Finland work can be as simple as a guy with a hard-on or it could be a full-on fisting scene. These are all things that are part of the gay culture and a lot of times they’re not really talked about or in the forefront. I personally like it because it’s kind of nice to be putting that imagery out there because this is stuff that is happening even though people may or may nor want to think about it or talk about. I think it speaks to gay pride, but I’m gonna make it every month, for sure. It’s gay pride every month in this studio.

To learn more, visit wesleyharvey.com.

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