Exploring the erotic fantasies of Todd Yeager.

“Gay men are quite compliant when it comes to sharing their sexuality,” says artist Todd Yeager, whose models in his book of erotic drawings, Rascals, would seem to vindicate.

“There’s an incredible amount of sex and body shame in the United States. We’re still holding tight to our puritanical origins. You wouldn’t think this viewing America from the outside, especially with our booming porn industry, but there’s quite a paradox here. A wealth of gay art abounds in New York these days, but the art market has barely picked up on it.”

Fortunately über-publisher Bruno Gmünder has, producing Yeager’s first collection of unabashedly gay and hyper-sexual images – raw, evocative drawings developed from lengthy photo sessions with the artist resulting in, quite literally, the money shot.

“The models get very turned on as we go along,” he says. “The sessions often end with the model having an orgasm.”

From the photos he takes during those sessions, he employs a cross-hatch drawing technique with grey-tinted ink and chalk to produce uniquely stylized illustrations that could have easily appeared alongside the great Dutch masters of the 1800s if the Dutch masters hadn’t been so uptight.

It creates an invariable underground feel – a sense that these scruffy, pierced and tattoo-clad rough-traders existed even then, and a telling reminder that their allure still exists now.

“I have to like my models. It’s not enough for the guys to be beautiful. I like classic, GQ good looks, a kind of a contemporary Greco-Roman face with a slight twist, but with an outsider element – a streak of danger or a bit of perverseness.”

A response, perhaps, to growing up in Small Town, USA?

“Hagerstown, Maryland,” he tells AXN. “It’s a very provincial place. As far as being gay in Hagerstown, it’s a big closet of a small town! The quintessential small-minded, all-American, Main-Street-USA kind of place.”

Now a New Yorker, he discovered a gay underbelly more potent than the Queer-Eyed SoHo.

“When I moved to New York, I began drawing images of gay culture that I experienced around me. My participation with The Queer Men’s Erotic Workshop [coordinated by Harvey Redding and Rob Hugh Rosen] has been a huge inspiration for me.

There are more than a hundred artists involved, producing an unbelievable 15,000-plus queer erotic works annually. So yeah, there’s quite the gay erotic arts underground blossoming in this city.”

He extracts most of his models from these events – ardent exhibitionists more than happy to share their sexuality.

“On a typical night, we display our work on the walls as the evening progresses. By the end of the night, the model is usually looking quite hypnotized by my ability to capture his likeness. At that point, he’s very eager to pose for me.”

Still, his most memorable experience in art?

“When I was 14, with a drawing I did, I won a trip to Disneyland.” AXN

Rascals: The Erotic Fantasies of Todd Yeager  is published by Bruno Gmünder and is available from Evolution Online. Visit eevolution.com.au.