A portrait of the artist as a gay man Columbus Other Paper, OH

In one of his latest paintings, Paul Richmond puts his own spin on a scene from The Wizard of Oz.

In it, Dorothy is replaced by a young boy who represents Richmond as a child. Incongruously sporting red stilettos rather than ruby slippers, the boy watches as Glinda the Good Witch of the North—who looks amazingly like country diva Dolly Parton—descends in a pink bubble.

The painting is Richmond's latest attempt to come to terms with his own coming out. It's a theme he once avoided in his art, though it's now become his prime focus.

And little wonder: Not only has it opened up new sources of inspiration, but it's led to successes including gallery exhibitions, greeting-card sales and the chance to rub elbows with celebrities.

Not bad for someone whose sexuality remained nebulous through his school-age years, which concluded with a degree from the Columbus College of Art & Design.

"I didn't come out of the closet, even, until after graduating," said Richmond, now 28.

After acknowledging to himself and the world that he was gay, Richmond soon began creating paintings that reflected his new reality. But even then, he said, the paintings remained as closeted as he once was.

"I was really just doing them more as a form of art therapy and trying to deal with what I was going through myself," Richmond said. "I really didn't think that they would be something people would necessarily be interested in."

A portrait of the artist as a gay man
Columbus Other Paper, OH