Several months back I read an interesting story in The Atlantic Magazine about a woman who had formed a voyeuristic fascination to a woman, an acquaintance she had met at a job and followed on Facebook for several years. Though she had never had any contact with the woman she lived vicariously though her postings and followed her through all her ups and downs and relationships and a forthcoming marriage. Then suddenly it stopped, the woman died and the woman wept and felt a deep loss and mourned the passing of this stranger.

Monday the Man Art website was finally disabled and taken off the Internet. We all knew it was coming and I wrote about it last week in the blog: MEN ON THE VERGE OF A PONOGRAPHIC EXTINCTION. It meant a lot to me because it’s the wellspring from which this project comes. I had posted never before seen images and thoughts and finally connected as an artist, with a group of people who accepted me and my vision unconditionally. Alliances were formed, courage gained, and artist emerged. I spent a great deal of the weekend reviewing those connections, looking at what I had posted over the last 9 months, peoples responses to me and my support of others. The sensitive little boy began to emerge and I become overwhelmed and began to feel my own loss. It was almost like a great part of myself is being taken away. A part of myself that had nurtured, coddled, and beguiled me. I had formed a strong alliance with an Australian man named John Douglas, one of the founders of the sight who had given me a new belief in myself. I wanted to share my last letter to John as I said my long last goodbye:

Dear John
“It brings tears to my eyes and a sorrow to my heart to see this site go. I have spent the past couple of days reexamining my connection to it and putting it in context. My dear you are a master of bringing out the beauty in others. I owe Man Art a debt of gratitude for helping me find myself in such a tumultuous year. But most of all I owe you so much for befriending me and helping me to see and believe in myself. I remember how excited I was to see images of you, how my heart leap to receive response back from you. I guess it’s odd because I feel in love with a stranger I have never met. I feel in love with you though your images of yourself and now see you though the images of your art. You have moved me so deeply and I hope we will soon meet up somewhere so I can collect on that hung you have always promised me. Take care my dear friend and thanks for so much life. “

Magical Looking Glass
# Posted by Terry J Cyr on May 21, 2010 at 12:41am on Man Art
I feel like Alice who has just passed into another dimension though some sort of looking glass. I am suddenly in a world that if filled with visual delight and inspiration. There are so many talented people on this web site and I am getting an amazing amount of positive feedback on the few images submitted yesterday. I have begun reaching out and connecting to many. I spent hours looking at others work and giving feedback to their images that moved me. This is truly a remarkable place to rest and grow. I am excited to have finally found a place to become myself and fill my creative well. Yesterday morning I felt I had hit rock bottom with the way everything around me has been going. This morning is a complete reversal.

Dreams revealed
# Posted by Terry J Cyr on May 25, 2010 at 1:59am on Man Art
Where does this website originate? It is one of the most remarkable things I have ever seen. I am drawn deeper and deeper with each new connection I make. There are so many mirrors of myself hidden within all it’s context. It feels like such a large labyrinth of feeling emotions, desire, fear, paranoia and beauty. Much of it I do not yet understand but seem to grow with each journey within. I feel hypnotically drawn into a new layer I had not seen of myself that has always been lurking below my own consciousness but was too afraid to express. The isolation of the Rocky Mountains is beginning to melt and excitement is building within myself to explore a whole new realm of my own expression through imagery.

The haunting song EVERY TIME WE SAY GOODBYE Lyrics by Cole Porter, sung by Annie Lennox rings thought my head today as I morn the loss of something so powerful it was beyond my ability to express.

I found the link to the original story A DEATH ON FACEBOOK:Intimacy and loss in the age of social media, original story by Kate Bolick