Jerome Stueart + Queerness, Art, Books, Geek Culture, and the Yukon
The Further (Queer) Adventures of Yukon Cornelius
Here you will find in order, so far, the blogposts associated with these adventures I wrote in 2022 for Yukon Cornelius, the burly prospector character borrowed from the 1964 Rankin/Bass stop-motion animated Christmas special, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, written by Romeo Muller. I hope to one day put these all in a book. You’ll notice that the stories for the first 5 or 6 paintings are very, very short, some only a paragraph or an idea. I didn’t know what this was turning into when I started creating them on October 1, 2022; only that I was going to do one painting a day for 31 days to get ready for my show in December of 2022 at the Dayton Society of Artists gallery. I wanted to have 50 paintings for the show. After the sixth painting, the stories get longer until the last story of the first set, “Yukon Cornelius (and Penny) confront the scariest monster,” seems to be a full short story.
Pictures are in order, left to right, then down to the next row.
The final pictures are short essays for a set of thoughts around “The Bedroom is our Living Room”– the idea that we do a lot of living in our bedrooms, not just sleeping.
Some pictures that are associated with this series but I haven’t written stories for yet:
Yukon Cornelius Swims with a Baby KrakenYukon Cornelius face-paints VampiresYukon Cornelius reads to the Monster Under the BedYukon Cornelius feeds a UnicornYukon Cornelius teaches a Skunk Ape about Beard OilYukon Cornelius negotiates with Ghosts at his Niece’s PromYukon Cornelius brings tacos to the GargoylesYukon Cornelius Sees a LeviathanYukon Cornelius takes a Werewolf to Pup Obedience TrainingYukon Cornelius sits with a BansheeYukon Cornelius tries to avoid the Black Dog of DeathYukon Cornelius Brings a Jack-O-Lantern to DinnerYukon Cornelius is Weird with the Abominable SnowmonsterYukon Cornelius jams with the HodagYukon Cornelius helps relocate a gold dragonYukon Cornelius advocates for garden gnomesYukon Cornelius dreams a DaemonYukon Cornelius investigates a suspected Closet MonsterYukon Cornelius helps a Phoenix transitionYukon Cornelius boogies with the Boogey ManYukon Cornelius delivers letters for the crew of the Flying DutchmanYukon Cornelius advises the Swamp CrocsYukon Cornelius considers traditions with the GryphonYukon Cornelius restores the joy of SatyrsYukon Cornelius reminisces with a SarangayYukon Cornelius sees a White StagYukon Cornelius introduces the Gryphon to the SphinxYukon Cornelius makes friends and allies of the BabasYukon Cornelius connects fairiesYukon Cornelius watches Bumble paint a muralYukon Cornelius (and Penny) confront the Scariest MonsterThe Bedroom is our Living Room: We watch movies in the BedroomWe Talk about Everything in the Bed Until Deep into the MorningWe Try out New Versions of Ourselves in the BedroomThe Bedroom as Invitation and WelcomeWe sleep (and snore ) and are vulnerable in the bedroomWe sing and bust up laughing in the bedroomWe Read to each other in the BedroomWe are sometimes by ourselves and lonely in our bedroomWe take care of each other in the bedroomWhat possibilities are we letting into our bedroom?Friends come over to chat with us in our bedrooms
Below are pictures from the pop-up art show in Dayton on December 16-18, 2022
Bear Witness 