n my work, the theme of skin and its impermanence has always been a constant — starting from the use of wax in painting, to create a textural body, which then emerged from the canvas to the elastic skin of a model I collaborated with and photographed for 7 years until his death.
Photographs
Jose Padua
…I could walk out of my apartment
on a Sunday morning still half drunk after not sleeping
all night and see Sade taking a stroll on First Avenue.
Maybe she was on tour, maybe she had a place in town—
I didn’t know, but she was already a huge star.
When I smiled at her she smiled back at me with a smile
that could destroy every nightmare I’d ever had in my life…
Jose Padua
I can’t tell whether the flowers are falling or
floating in this painting just as I can’t tell whether
I am falling or floating, especially when I’m
writing a poem, because writing poems has become like
doing crack for me.
Jose Padua
Let happiness lie like a dog on your lap,
Virginia, state of green, state of mountain
roads, and tackler of new centuries…
Jeff Spirer
San Francisco Pride. Every year I shoot Pride during the setting up time. I don’t like shooting the parade, all parades look the same after a while. This was my favorite from this year.
Jose Padua
Behind the wheel listening to P-Funk in my new neighborhood
the blank stare of the shirtless Larry the Cable Guy lookalike sharpens
to crystal clarity as his lazy slouch straightens up into a confident
strut and the words Git-R-Done are banished forever from his lips…
Jose Padua
I never liked perfection,
I never tried to make the pieces
fit neatly, cleanly, exactly.
I always like the team that worked
the hardest, yet blew it in the end…
