Michael Rosey

Bullock: Can I see some new drawings?
Rosey: Okay, look at this here… A lot of my images now, to be honest, come from screenshots. I’ll see pornography and something will inspire me, so I’ll screenshot it.
What kind of pornography do you like?
Whatever fetish is calling me – big men, fair men, hairy men…
I like this self-sucking image.
It’s actually not. It’s somebody lying on their back, sucking someone who is bending over them.
When did you make your first erotic drawing?
It probably happened soon after I started drawing. Maybe 2015. Let me just take you back to around 2014. I’d already been injured for about, I don’t know, five years and I was coming out of a deep depression.
So the injury happened when you were in your forties?
Yeah, I was 46. I was trying gymnastics for the first time at MIT.
Why were you at MIT?
I was there with friends of friends – one of them was a rocket scientist – and every week they had a recreational day. It went hand in hand with their studies. They understand how things project into space. I went as a guest. My friend wasn’t very physically fit, so I said to myself, ‘If she can do it, I can too.’
Alright.
At the time, I had a lot of upper body strength. I was jumping, tumbling in the air, just amazing things. Then I got to the parallel bars – they can be very high but they lowered them down to about six feet – and I just started swinging like a pendulum. But I could feel that I was going too fast and I tried to stop, but as I understand it, I over-rotated and fell on my back. As soon as I was on the ground, I was numb from the chest down.
You knew immediately?
Yes, I had broken my spine.
Heartbreaking.
Well, just shock. All the alarms were going off…
Can you tell me a bit about the first 46 years of your life?
I’ve done a lot. I’ve traveled a lot, I’ve studied a lot. I’ve had different kinds of jobs. I was a jewelry designer for 20 years.
Did you always want to be an artist?
Ever since I was a kid. My family is filled primarily with visual artists, but a lot of them teach and were, like, old-fashioned and said, ‘Well, what are you going to do with an art degree?’ But as I grew up, I decided I was going to stay as creative as possible and ended up getting a bachelor’s degree in advertising.
Did you ever work in advertising?
More like PR in medical advertising. The pharmaceutical companies I worked for started out with AIDS drugs. I progressed in that very quickly – almost too quickly – and I wasn’t prepared for the responsibilities. Then I received an opportunity from the artist Stephen Hale – he had a friend with a costume jewelry company that was looking for an assistant. So I put together some drawings, he liked them, he hired me and that’s how I quit the advertising business.
Did you grow up in New York?
I’m a second-generation New Yorker. My mother was born here. My grandparents came from the South in the 20s – part of the Great Migration.
Where did you grow up?
I was raised in Queens – she makes good queens – but as soon as I turned 21, I had to get the hell out of there. I moved to Harlem in the 80s and I’ve lived my entire adult life here.
You were just getting your bearings as an out gay man right when AIDS was beginning?
Exactly. That’s a whole other thing.
Horrible timing. You were 18 in ’81, right?
Mhm.
Fuck. What a time to come out.
Yes. Right when they had that big article in the New York Times about “gay cancer”.
Oh yeah.
And that was even before people knew about safe sex. At the time, I went on a date with a guy who was too big for me, trying to penetrate without any lubricant. It didn’t work out. A few months later, he was dead. I was fortunate.

His size saved you.
(laughs) Yes, I was not equipped. But that’s a whole different life. I didn’t have my first experience with a man until I was 19.
When the accident happened what was your first thought? Did you think about the future of your sex life?
(laughs) That was not my initial thought. Early on, I had an evil doctor. When I first met her, she asked, ‘Have you noticed any erections lately?’ And I’m like, ‘Bitch, I just had a traumatic accident and the first thing you’re gonna ask me about is my erection?! The last thing I’m worried about is sex!’ At first, what I missed most was wiping my own ass. It came down to the barest of human abilities, being able to take care of myself. 20-something years later, I still rely on other people to do everything except typing on the computer and drawing – to some extent – I still need others to help change and sharpen my pencils.
How can you hold a pencil?
I have an amazing friend who fashioned a strap to go around my finger. It holds a pencil or brush so I can draw with my index finger.
What a good friend. So why did you start drawing?
I discovered drawing through art therapy. I had met this man who became my friend and lover and over time he became my muse – there’s quite a number of drawings I’ve done of him.
So when the title is ‘Muse’, is that always him?
Not always. There’s some I drew of him straight on. His name is Brian. He recently died.
I’m so sorry. How long did you know him?
10 years. I met him online. I don’t want to get into specifics.
Are people attracted to you because of your disability?
I don’t find that.
My boyfriend broke his arm just before a trip to Fire Island. The cast turned out to be a magnet.
Was that in the Pines?
Yes.
I only ever went to Cherry Grove.
When’s the last time you went there?
Oh, fuck. I’m done with traveling because of my condition, but I went there in my thirties. I dated somebody who had a house out there. He gave me that Marc Chagall poster above my bed.
Are you a Chagall fan?
I love art.
I had made this assumption that the drawings maybe took the place of your sex life.
See the mirror right there, above my bed, I had that installed, like, five years ago. There was a missing element. I realized I needed to see how I’m doing. I need to see what’s going on down there. And it added something to it. And that thing right next to you, that machine, yes, it’s called a Hoyer lift, it gets me into the bed. That’s the biggest sex toy I’ve ever bought.
(laughs)
What probably motivates my art is me wanting people to not just assume because somebody’s in a wheelchair that they have no sex life or are not able to have sex. I’m the top. I’m an amusement park. You put me down on that bed. Ride the dick and put whatever you want in my mouth. I’ve never had any complaints. I’ve only had two lovers since the incident and they seem to enjoy it.

Well, that’s great news! I’m happy to gain that understanding.
And I’ve come across someone new too. We have fun. Lots of fun. Great dick. He’s Spanish, so he keeps up my Spanish.
Where did you meet?
I only meet men online. When I’m out in the world nobody’s gonna approach me like that. I have to be the one to approach.
Because people want to be respectful?
They just don’t think of me as a sexual being anymore. I’ve had people say things to me like they thought I was good-looking or tell me they like my hair, that kind of thing, but nothing crosses over.
Sexually, is there anything that you wish that you could still do? Like, is an orgy out of the question?
Recently I had two men here at once. That was a nice thing, but they weren’t into it enough. They weren’t into each other, not enough into me… I used to like to flip fuck. But since the accident I can’t be penetrated.
So this condition turned you into a total top?
I’d call myself a versatile top. Not everybody could fuck me, because they had to know what the fuck they’re doing. But when everything was right, when everything was working, then it was on. There’s pretty much nothing I won’t do, just short of blood and feces and piss. But, you know, it’s a pretty full menu.
Good to have all the options available.
I don’t understand people who are strictly this and strictly that. It’s with two men, there are so many options here. Why should we limit ourselves?
Do you ever go to gay bars?
No. Nobody wants to do that at my age.
Do you miss being in larger groups with other gay people?
The only thing I miss is dancing.
Where would you go in your gay adolescence, like, in Harlem in the 80s?
Oh, I was still in Queens then, but I’d come into Manhattan, for the clubs. The biggest club was called the Garage.
Oh yeah! If I could time travel back to the New York City clubs, it’d be Max’s Kansas City and Paradise Garage! Years ago, I was seeing a Puerto Rican guy from the Bronx and his drunk aunt once told me the Paradise Garage made her cool with fags.
They called it the “GAY-RAGE”! Friday night was straight night. Saturday night was gay night. People would go to both. It was really all about the music and, of course, the recreational drugs.
What was your drug?
Mescaline.
I’ve never thought of mescaline as a club drug. Is it fun?
A lot of fun. Mescaline is a psychedelic. I usually got to the club at 1AM. But one morning, we got there at 2AM and all the big drug dealers were gone. There was one person, I don’t even know if it was a man, woman, that sold us something on paper. I had never done acid before and I had a bad trip. I thought people were laughing at me while I was dancing. I thought I shit my pants. I hadn’t.
Okay, so no more acid for you.
Well, at least not there, it’s fine in different circumstances. Actually, I was in Yosemite park and I did some and had sex in the woods. That was good.

I bet. Going back to Paradise Garage.
You could be whatever you wanted to be there. You know the movie ‘Paris is Burning’? All those children were there. Actually, much later on, I had a one-night stand with one of them. I met him at a bathhouse, the East Side Club. He was working there as an attendant and I caught his eye and told him I recognized him. He tried to play it down. Later on, he searched until he found me… He was supposed to be working. They were actually calling him on the intercom while he was trying to make contact with me. We exchanged numbers and eventually he came here and we…
Right here? So this has been your apartment for…
I’ve been here 24 years. If these walls could talk!
They don’t need to. You’re talking! You were in your forties when the accident happened, so you had already done the gay culture stuff. That’s not what you’re missing, right?
Actually, I miss working out. I used to work out all the time. I also miss not being in pain. I’m in pain all the fucking time, even right now.
And yet your attitude remains generous. How long did it take to arrive there?
They say it’s usually five years after a traumatic incident before you get yourself together. Before that, of course, I wanted to die. These days I really feel like I’m lucky, because if I hadn’t hurt myself, I wouldn’t have become an artist. I’ve actually been able to do almost everything I’ve wanted to do. I worked in fashion. I traveled the world. I learned three languages. I became an artist.
How long does it take you to make a drawing?
It takes me a week to do a drawing.
I’d love to look at some more drawings. I saw almost everything on your Instagram.
This is new stuff, so I’m a little shy about it. It’s over there, on the bench.
Do you sell them?
I’ve sold about 15 drawings. Most of my drawings that I’ve sold are feet. People really love them.

And feet are on the menu for you?
Oh, they are. I have awoken a few of my lovers to the erotics of feet… Look at these – they are all of me. (smiles) These are taken from old pictures that I took of myself. I think I was masturbating.
It’s hard to tell from Instagram – are they all made with colored pencil?
Or charcoal. It’s always a mix.
Has your family seen your work?
For the most part, yeah. Actually, right before I started with eroticism I’d have my aunt – who was 80 years old at the time – help me. But she stopped because she got a little too…
What do you mean? She helped you with sharpening the pencil and all that?
She’d sit here and talk to me while I drew. When she stopped, then I was able to move into eroticism.
Maybe you want some people in here to inspire you?
I have a vivid imagination. I like such a wide range of men and tastes.
How would you describe your tastes?
I’m not a size queen or any of that. I don’t care about a man’s penis. If it works, let’s give it a shot.
If I model for you, what’ll your process be like? You’ll take pictures of me?
Whatever it is you want to do or feel comfortable doing in front of me.
Great. Can you go back to the drawing with the flower tattooed around that one guy’s hole?
Oh, that one. I like how it’s a beautiful composition. It all really came together.
And how do you know when a drawing is good?
I always say if it turns me on then it’s a good drawing.