Paul Rybarczyk

I work with naked men all day long. As a licensed massage therapist I work with the human body hands-on. My role as a health care provider obligates me to use my skills of observation and analysis, with detachment. This is a private and confidential experience shared only between me and my client. When I paint the figure, I’m exploring and relating to the figure in a different way. I use my skills of observation but this time with involvement...emotional, visceral and visual. And this time my experience is neither private nor confidential; it’s not to be kept secret but instead I can present it to the world. I paint the male figure because it is what I respond to the most. I search out the strength, character, emotions, longings and desires of my models. Some of my models become my massage clients and some of my massage clients become my models. I prefer to feature my models in some unguarded or relaxed moment, in a natural or home based setting, rather than having them “strike a pose”. I believe that paintings of the male figure have been under represented in contemporary art and want people to accept them as readily as those of the female form. Featured in The Art of Man, issue 3: www.theartofman.net