West Australian artist Strykermeyer is obessed by sexual demons. Barry Lowe discovers why.

Stykermeyer’s art is perverse. Erotic. Obsessed. Like the artist himself.

But he didn’t start out that way – although his interest in art began as far back as he can remember. When he was four and first at school, his class made a mural of a farm setting on the classroom wall and stuck hay and other material all over it. “I really loved it,” West Australian Strykermeyer tells AXN.

But he’s left the hay and his childhood murals behind. At the moment “I'm absorbed deeply in slideshow, video, film and photography!” And in his spare time he also does massage.

 “I get as much joy from that as any art form. And you better believe I'm the best in the West!”

Currently Strykermeyer is exhibiting some of his more explicit and demonic works on MANART, a new website devoted to male erotic art. What attracts him to sexual demons? “Wow, what doesn't? I'm an old-school boy who is old enough to remember the outlawing of homo sex! I'm afraid that never leaves my psyche. I was told that my body was dirty and not to touch it, etc. Therefore my body was confined to the privacy and secrecy of my imagination. I'm a bad boy in the sack – well, wherever the mood or the opportunity takes me. I love things with a dark nature – I belong there! I'm an imp, a faun, a devil, a sprite. I believe in the magic or horror of my dreams. The demons are generally myself, the incubus/succubus, the stealer of dreams and luster after the bodies of men as well as the ‘not worthy’ worshipper.”

  Lust is an integral part of Strykermeyer’s output and the man is every bit as sexy as his art. His unusual name came from a period when he was “raised by drag queens. You don't get a say in whatever they call you! The name Strykermeyer was in a number I was doing in the early ’80s. It stuck because of the androgynous nature I had.”

He enjoys exhibiting his work on MANART. “It's the first time I've had feedback from fellow artists,” he told me. “Men are very welcome to view my artworks on the site but due to its setup it stipulates ‘men only’, and I don't want to infringe on its freedom. Love that exclusiveness, it's totally liberating. I've begun collaborating with others on the site which is of great interest to me and hopefully them.”

Strykermeyer can’t envisage a life without art. “My art means the world to me as this is how I have always looked at life, in the realms between what is considered ‘actual’ or ‘real.’ I'm a nervous dreamer, never totally conscious of the ‘real’ world. I live in some kind of Dali-esque landscape. I'd never be able to explain what I see or how I see it: not clairvoyant but close.”

Those who want to see what Strykermeyer is all about can check out Art in Bloom at The West Australian Art Gallery from August 22-24, 9am -5pm. The gallery chooses 100 artists and allocates each a pre-existing work already in the gallery. The artists then come back with a floral 'tribute’ or ‘answer’ to their allocated piece. Strykermeyer’s is ‘Assassin’, a work by Albert Tucker. 

http://manart.ning.com/profile/strykermeyer