Joey Terrill

In 1981, I Was a Priest, and He Was a Clown

This self-portrait by Joey Terrill celebrates joy, friendship, and resilience while also mourning a community devastated by the AIDS epidemic. Terrill painted the work over the course of three years, as the mysterious and deadly illness spread through his community of friends and colleagues. Based on a photograph depicting the artist and his lover at a Halloween party in 1981, the retrospective image of two gay men standing in a cemetery, crowded by cartoon ghosts, takes on a somber tone. As the artist explains, “Because my work was autobiographical, HIV naturally played a role in it as I started to have friends get sick and die.” Terrill was diagnosed with HIV in 1989. After his diagnosis, he became an outspoken advocate and community
organizer focused on access to quality, life-saving health services for HIV-positive people.