Artist Jack Balas on Mental Health and Men’s Bodies

Originally based in Chicago and Los Angeles, artist Jack Balas now lives in Boulder and made his Denver debut in 1986. He has shown his work in the area ever since.

Balas divides his time between painting, drawing, and photography, cross-referenced at times with writing and other media. For the last 15 years, he has focused on depictions of men’s bodies and is keen to present them in a variety of personal and societal scenarios that project them far beyond the traditional role of portraiture. 

Employing painted language in the form of titles, phrases, and paragraph-stories, the works take on the strategies of annotated documents, maps, and calendars, and yet by their very depiction, the men found in them also take on the politics of queer and masculine visibility.

OFM caught up with Balas to talk more about his artwork and his views on mental health.

How would you describe yourself as an artist?

A figurative painter. I’ve worked a lot in oil on canvas, and lately, a lot of ink on paper and watercolor. 

How did you discover your passion for art?

I was in the art club in high school, and we did ceramics, this and that, and one day, when we ventured into watercolors, something just stuck. It took off from there. 

How has art become a therapeutic outlet for you?

When the world is crazy, as it has been lately, it’s kind of a refuge. I can be having a real shit day, but if I go into my studio and just focus on making something, it really sort of calms me down.

Would you say mental health is an important topic for you to express through your artwork?

Honestly, I don’t think about it too much. Art is a big part of my life, and I focus on making interesting images and getting them out there to the world. Different people take different things from the work, and I feel that’s all good. 

A lot of your work has to do with exploring the bodies of men. Can you talk more about that?

The very first model that I photographed that focuses on the male body was back in the mid-90s. This guy came past my house walking his dog, and he didn’t have a shirt on. I just went, “Oh my God.” I followed him on my bicycle and asked him if he would come over and pose for photos, and that’s where it started. I’ve done 80 or 90 people since then. I was making photos as exhibition images from the very start, and then my husband started to use them to generate paintings. 

I’m down in Tucson right now because years ago, I taught for a year at the University of Arizona. I was just a one-year visiting artist, and they asked me to teach life drawing. After that, I got a lot more interested in drawing the figure and painting the figure. I had been photographing the models that had been coming in all along, but I started to use the subject matter more for paintings than as finished photographs. 

We hire guys for a couple hours, and I’ll be photographing them against a white wall with props and language, and the goal is always to make images that could be transported into a painting, but the ultimate goal is just to make interesting art. I get the guys from the rec center from the weight room here in Tucson. I was a member at CU Boulder’s rec center for a long time because I taught there as well. I’m surrounded by all these weight room guys, so I have a lot of people to pick from. I started asking around. 

How do you think mental health impacts art?

I think there’s a good connection between them. A big part of the art world is focused on political activism, outrage right now, as far as world events are concerned—Black Lives Matter, a lot of different issues across the spectrum. Many artists are interested in changing the world and putting work out there that somehow creates a positive effect on other people. Whether that’s true and whether it works or not, that’s the huge debate. Was this a waste of time or not? 

I do know that, by working in the studio with issues that concern me, I feel better. I feel like I’m doing something positive. I’m not making happy flowers, but if I were making happy flowers, and I was happy because I was making happy flowers, I think that would be a good thing. So, it all depends on where you’re at on the spectrum, and I would associate good mental health with someone who’s balanced and can deal with the world but also find fun, pleasure, and beauty at the same time. 

Why do you think mental health is still an issue that’s stigmatized and often pushed to the side or swept under the rug?

I haven’t thought about it this way, but I think the fact that mental health was always something to have an outsider come in and help you fix. It was like, “Oh, something’s wrong with me, and I need to call a doctor, psychologist, psychiatrist,” whatever. Now, I think the issue is migrating to, “How can I be proactive for myself? How can I take charge of my own mental health?” I think it was something people just never thought about.

Why do you think mental health is an even bigger issue in the LGBTQ+ community?

So many people have been terrorized growing up where they grew up, either via politics or especially through religion. We’re constantly being told that we’re going to hell, etc. You name it. There’s always been a bad self-image sort of beamed at the LGBTQ world, and I like to think that’s changing, but up until a few years ago, we couldn’t get married. It’s like, by default, you’re deficient. There are all these issues that I think wear you down over the course of time.

Besides art, how else do you keep your own mental health and wellbeing in check?

I get a lot of exercise. I like going out every day to ride my bike, walk, or jog, and I go to the weight room. I also love looking at art. I’ll go to museums and look at other people’s solutions to the world. 

Even though you have accomplished so much with your career as an artist, are there any future goals you hope to achieve?

I’m always working on that. A benefit of me being an artist is having shows and going to openings, possibly being flown here and there by a university or museum to come do a show or a talk. Those are beautiful perks beyond making the work itself. I have taken a step back, but I used to try to angle all the time for the next show or stuff like that. 

Galleries try to take care of sales, but I’ve taken a number of things on myself to kind of satisfy my urge. I like graphic design a lot, so I’ve put out catalogs of my work, and I maintain my own website. I’m partly in control of the image that’s out there, and I don’t have to rely on other people too much.

Stay up-to-date and connect with Balas by following him on Instagram @jack_balas_artist, or visit his official website, jackbalas.com.