"DECOR EST PALLOR VIGEO (Beauty is a Flower Fading)" by Rob Moler (Original Painting)

Like a mirror held to one’s face, my male figurative work within “THE LATIN SERIES” reflects the struggle between human aspiration and the transitory nature of human existence. My themes include the sensuality of the flesh, the pain of broken relationships, the injustices of homophobia, the hypocrisy within the Christian tradition, and the shallow nature of the male psyche. Like the artisans of antiquity, I have chosen the autonomous male nude to express the collective human condition, an ideal image projected throughout the ages but never quite realized. It is within his “vulnerable virility” that we make our own cognitive connections with the inevitable process of aging, dying and death. I usually incorporate some sort of mask or substitute an object to cover the face of the subject to lift him onto a symbolically higher level of self-awareness and consciousness. By masking the figure, the internal male psyche rather than the individual physical portrait is emphasized which brings further content to the painting.

I am drawn to surrealism as it depicts a world where time is meaningless and gravity does not rule. In my surreal landscapes, objects are possessed by the spirits of positive and negative emotions or are carried by my little hummingbird messengers to add further depth to the story. Hopefully my work will connect emotionally with viewers, encouraging them to unmask these objects to discover their spiritual core and find personal meaning within.

​My introduction to the broader gay community came through my first visit to gay bars and dating apps at the ripe old age of fifty. To be honest, the harsh reality of ageism took me naively by surprise and I immediately knew what it felt like to be marginalized amongst my already marginalized “tribe”. Months later I came across the Latin phrase “decor est pallor vigeo” which led me to visually explore that negative experience through surrealism.