GAYLETTER

Before I spoke to Ted Sterchi, the artist behind Grindr Illustrated, I didn’t know what to make of his illustrations. Honestly I didn’t even know if he was an actual he, since, as we all know, there are some freaky girls out there. From one perspective the artist presents these quaint paintings—of Grindr profile pictures from the notorious gay app—as if they were created to appear on greeting cards at a cutesy book store in the West Village. In another sense however, they’re almost a comical and voyeuristic view of one man’s sexual escapades via the infamous app. Either way, I wasn’t prepared for a conversation with a good natured, self-proclaimed “lapsed romantic” American ginger, living and working in London.

Born in upstate New York, Ted Sterchi studied new media design at Rochester Institute of Technology. He then made his way to London to pursue a relationship with an Australian man. Although they’re no longer together, Ted remains abroad. When I ask about the origins of the project, Ted tells me that he’s always gone back and forth with Grindr. He told me that he and his boyfriend were both on Grindr while they were together, “just to see who was around.” Single Ted now uses the app for more or less what it was intended for.

“I had this unofficial new years resolution just to be more creative” Ted tells me over Skype one evening. “I felt like I wasn’t really inspired last year, I wasn’t doing much creatively.” 

After a shoe-making class and an attempt at making cream cheese at home, Ted stumbled upon the idea for Grindr Illustrated.  It came about one evening while he was sitting at home, on the couch, texting his friends, “I got the idea to make these pretty pictures out of Grindr profile photos.”

Using pens and watercolor, Ted creates these imperfect and spontaneous little paintings of the men he comes across on the app. Part of the appeal is that the paintings are spontaneous and approachable, but also the fact that he doesn’t look for one type of guy. “I don’t have a set of criteria,” he says. “London’s a really diverse city so I’ve been trying to get a good range [of guys]. It would get really boring painting the same person every single time, or just painting torsos or something.”

It’s clear that there’s a range in the kinds of Grindr profile photos he’s choosing from. But it’s more interesting what those profile pictures become once Ted’s had his way with them. The more ‘innocent’ profile photos remain sincere, yet are also transformed into minimal caricatures; while the more sexy photos, they seem to lose their sexiness and turn into harmless innocent paintings, or in Ted’s words, “pretty things.”

Although his project is just a few months old, I was curious to know how it had evolved. One of Ted’s first paintings depicts a man with his back towards the camera, walking along a London street holding a bag. “In the beginning I had been choosing pictures that were like a cat or a rooster, or these people who don’t have face pictures, which is very interesting, to paint random scenes.” And it’s the faceless, sometimes bodiless images that are in some ways the most captivating.

It’s also the incongruity of the captions, paired with the picture, that creates an even deeper story. For instance, “top guy here” depicts a man looking out onto a body of water. While the caption is clearly sexual, when paired with Ted’s painting the whole scene becomes muted, and what stands out more is this feeling of solitude, anonymity, and perhaps loneliness.

Ted tells me he doesn’t ask for permission before painting a profile, “I just kind of hope that they’ll be ok with it,” he says laughing. Does he share the painting with his subject? Yes. “After I paint people, 99% of the time I will immediately send them the painting through Grindr. And then they’ll respond—it’s actually been good every single time so far.”

I ask him if he says anything before sending the picture, “I tend not to. It’s part of the fun. You have these guys looking for sex or a date, but instead they get a portrait of themselves. It’s kind of a nice little surprise.”

When I ask Ted if he’s gotten any dates after sending someone a painting, he’s reluctant to share a lot of information, only admitting that he went on one date post-painting, but he had no spark with the guy whatsoever.

Ted and I didn’t just talk about his project: we also talked about relationships, the trouble that comes with relationships, sex on Grindr, sex not on Grindr, and even his turtle Koopa. But what I enjoyed most about my conversation with Ted—and perhaps what’s most important to this story—is that he doesn’t take his project, or himself, too seriously. After our chat I reached out to Richard Haines, the wonderful and talented fashion illustrator, for his thoughts on Ted’s paintings. “Lovely, gentle, and sweet,” he writes to me. “A nice antidote to Grindr.” I couldn’t have put it better myself.

Check out his official website: Grindr Illustrated