Garden party

I went to a garden party over the weekend. Well, two, technically. It was a garden in Yorkshire, and I knew very few people there, except the people holding the party. It was a beautiful setting and quite a lot of people attended. You nod and say hello and smile at people, and conversation starts, and flows (hopefully) and moves from subject to subject. And the one thing that is guaranteed a reaction is the "I'm an erotic artist" one. Guaranteed everytime...... or so I thought!

The first party in the garden was during the day, lots of nice friendly folk there, keen gardeners and creative types. I had a couple of lovely chats about erotic art with two very nice older women and their general interest in the subject delighted me.

Later on that evening, the second party, still in the same garden, was for a slightly younger set of people, but during my many conversations it was mostly the older ones in their fifties and sixties who were interested in my art. Even if they didn't know much about art, they were happy to listen to me talk about it and exchange views on the subject. And there was one chap in particular who showed a lot of interest and asked very pertinent questions. I was more than happy to explain about erotic art to him. And he asked a good question "What's the purpose of erotic art?" And I hesitated before I replied - for me, art should be appealing, it should be pleasing to the eye, and erotic art should have an air of mystery about it. It shouldn't be too explicit, and it should be sensual. So then that made me think about how men and women view erotic art - if its a picture of a woman, does the man viewing it think that he'd like to see his lover do that, and if its a woman, does she imagine herself doing what the woman in the picture is doing? And then, the chap I was talking to, said something really profound about my art and its purpose, but it was just as something else was happening, so I didn't take it in fully, and afterwards when I prompted him to repeat it, he couldn't remember what he'd said, and neither could I! Bugger! And I know it was really important, and now its lost for ever. I'll never know it. Unless he's reading this, and remembers! In which case can you email me please!! (and yes, it'll teach me to listen properly in future!).

And later on that night, very late on, in the early hours, there was a younger set of people standing around chatting, we talked of visits to Amsterdam, and Bangkok, of sex shops and sex shows, and then I thought it might be pertinent to mention that I was an erotic artist, there was complete.......................silence. And no response whatsobloomingever. What was that all about then?????!