Mr NYC: Interview: Lynn Paula Russell, Legendary Artist and Performer

Somebody should make a movie or, better yet, a mini-series about the life of Lynn Paula Russell. Her story has had a number of fascinating chapters that would translate into equally exciting episodes. Lynn has worked as a stage actress, model, and adult film star. But that’s not even what she’s best known for! Lynn has mainly had a long and very successful career as a portraiture and erotic artist. She has used her body, mind, intelligence, emotions, and overwhelming talent to forge a long, unique, and multi-varied artistic career, an amazing professional achievement.

If the biggest thing on Lynn’s resume was appearing in the revolutionary musical Hair, that would be enough. But after years on the stage, she moved into erotic modeling before starting her career as a graphic designer and illustrator. Lynn is best known for her highly explicit, charged, and extremely beautiful erotic art in addition to her portraits of the rich and famous. But whether she’s illustrating people or subjects that are naughty, nice, or both, her work blazes with color, sensuality, confidence, and a true appreciation of the beauty of the human form. To see her work is to see an explosion of love for people, for nature, for sex, and for the gloriousness of life.

Lynn is British and still lives in the United Kingdom but, from the late 1960s to the 1980s, she came to NYC several times. She had, to say the least, many interesting adventures and experiences in the city that most of us can only dream about. In this three-part interview, Lynn shares her memories and thoughts on her career of performing, art, sex, and, of course, New York City.

Tell us briefly about your upbringing and what led you to pursue an artistic career.

Since it is virtually impossible to be brief when it comes to discussing one’s upbringing I will try not to get too deeply into this subject. I grew up in a small seaside town in the South of England. My mother was a gifted artist who had never been given the opportunity to pursue a career of her own, so she was determined that this should not happen to her four daughters. From a very young age, we all took dancing classes and appeared onstage in musical shows. These were the highlights of my young life. But in the early years I also loved to draw all the time and knew this was one of my best subjects at school. When it was time to choose a career direction, I was torn between my two loves – Art and Theatre. Eventually it seemed more sensible to go to Art School, and I specialized in Graphic design. But nothing is straightforward and soon after leaving college I found myself being propelled towards a career treading the boards.

You have acted and danced but also have spent most of your career as a painter and illustrator. Tell us about your experiences as a stage performer and why you decided finally to devote yourself to creating art.

Well, in my hometown I had become closely associated with a writer who was planning a musical production for the London stage. He had seen my appearances in the local amateur dramatics and wanted me to be in his production. This sounds mad, when I look back, because I had had no professional experience – and as it happened, I never did appear in that show, but it did provide me with a huge impetus to come to London. I was taken on by an agent who sent me up for all kinds of jobs. The very first one brought me to the US. What luck that was! Then the second job granted me the unique experience of appearing in the musical Hair, which had come over from Broadway to the West End in 1968 and caused a sensation. I had seen it as an 18-year old student and been quite shocked by its openness, and then three years later, in the National Tour of the show, there I was, the erstwhile prim, provincial girl, stripping off on stage and feeling proud to do so!

The breakthrough of these early days didn’t last unfortunately and although there had been a few high spots that were exciting, after 6 year’s work began to dwindle. It was as if some inner reserve was holding me back from fully engaging with my true feelings. My trouble was that I could only play emotionally inhibited girls, like myself, and couldn’t get beyond a certain inner block. But when doors start closing, others open to new possibilities.

You have had a long and successful career as an erotic artist. What inspired you to start creating erotic art and what are your favorite books that you've created and worked on?

The answer to this springs out of what I said about feeling blocked. I guess we all have to work within our limitations, but something was pushing me from inside to burst out and release myself. This burst-out finally happened when I was 30 – well, they say that hitting this age makes you review your life and take stock. It certainly heralded a change of direction for me. This is when I took the plunge and decided to model for soft-core porn magazines in England. I did not see this at first as a career move – it was more like accepting a dare. I viewed it as a sort of therapy. To my great surprise, I took to it like a duck to water. Being able to be honest at last and get my clothes off was a massive relief, and for a few weeks the modeling sessions took over my life. Since the things that move us deeply have to be expressed in art, I soon found myself drawing on my experiences to create new work. Then I started illustrating a magazine called Janus, which specialized in a very British subject – erotic corporal punishment. This also expressed my own area of interest since S/M was something that had intrigued me ever since discovering The Story of O.

Several collections of my work were published in the early 2000s by the Erotic Print Society, and I think my favorite is A Sexual Odyssey. That is the most comprehensive cross-section of illustrations and paintings.

Your erotic art is very explicit but it is also visually stunning -- colorful, elegant, sensual, and confident. It feels like you are both trying to arouse the viewers while also proclaiming the beauty and power of human sexuality. Is that a good way to describe your work or would you describe it differently?

I am glad that is how you see my work. Yes, beauty, and power are very relevant. That is what hit me when I started my adventures – sex is the fundamental power of life, which is always motivating people, whether they are aware of it or not. The expression of power, both negative and positive, is always related to the sex drive, which is why we have to be careful how we use it in our relationships. And yes, the beauty is there too. Orgasm is a way of connecting with the universe, with the very core of our being. Excuse me for waxing lyrical, but it is about time that we started to see and evaluate our sexuality in a new way and stop thinking in terms of ‘dirt’ and ‘smut’.

You're most known for your erotic artwork but have also done non-erotic art like portraitures. What is some of your most notable or favorite non-erotic art that you've created?

Before I entered the erotic scene my work was largely centered around the theatre. When I was no longer an actor, I illustrated a children’s book and painted some posters of vintage film stars. Then there was a stint working backstage, mainly on the show Annie, which was a huge hit in London. Andrea McArdle who created the part of Annie in the original production, had come over from Broadway to open the show, and it was her mother Phyllis who first commissioned a portrait from me. Thereafter, I received other commissions from the cast and production team, like Sheila Hancock, who played Miss Hannigan, and Charles Strouse, the composer of the music. Then other shows followed. A Chorus Line was one of these. Of course, since most of my paintings were supposed to be surprise presentations, I wasn’t able to paint from life. Two of my favorites were the portraits of Tommy Steele in many of his various roles, and of Monty Berman, the famous London costumier.

In 1979 I was once more in New York, painting such people as Liberace, TV chat-show host Merv Griffin and theatre producer Lewis Allen. Much later on, in NY, I met the publicist of "Masterpiece Theatre" and was asked to provide publicity portraits of actors in British TV shows that were widely shown in the States. The most memorable one of these showed the young Colin Firth heading the cast in his first appearance in a TV series. Remembering back, there was also a calendar to celebrate the Royal Wedding of Charles and Di in 1981. That really was miles away from my erotic creations!