~ Dedicated to Ben Gillespie, 1939 -- 1988 ~
Companion, Lover, Artist, Teacher,
Passionate Man, My Heart

The. Titolo (B. 1928)

For many years in New York City, and presently in a small Connecticut town, Ted Titolo has created images reflecting his homosexual outlook conjoined with a spiritual quest. His unique style can be seen in works that date back to the 1950's and continue into the new millenium. The accompanying illustrations are from a large portfolio of art that Mr. Titolo has donated to the Leslie-Lohman Gay Art Foundation (LLGAF) for preservation and display, and are now part of the Foundation's permanent collection. In connection with our presenting his work on this site, he wrote the following:

"There's an ancient tradition of those who see beyond the material. Blake was such a giant, and the man who wrote the following was a more recent prophet:

No one will get at my verses who insists upon viewing them as literary performance, or attempt at such performance, or at aiming mainly toward art or aestheticism.
~ Walt Whitman
If you substitute "images" for "verses," and "graphic" for "literary," you will pretty much understand how I view things. By no means am I attempting to place myself in their company; but it is vision which instructs that gives me the greatest pleasure.

Creating sexual allegories offered a way to use the language of our era to explore and comment on various "realities," from corporate America, gender assumptions, and my own unknown interior mind.

Art is a healing process, as Nietzshe pointed out. But mainly for those who practice it. A man...[makes images]...in order to know himself, and thus get rid of self eventually. That is the divine purpose of art.
~ Henry Miller
Creating images is the practice of meditative magic, and it's in the making that true religion occurs, spiritual-material conjunction. What's left on the paper is just the residue. Later, outside the church, it's all about comparing fashions."