Show time!!

I had a nice day out yesterday. I went to London. Its years since I was last there and good to see the old familiar places - as well as some new ones. St. Pancras in particular is stunning!!! - what a wonderful piece of architecture, full of light and vision, colour and beauty. I loved it!! It was worth the trip just to be there!


And nice to go to London and be around the sort of people I feel right at home with.......... the sort who are happy to be dressed up in a pretty dress, high heels and make-up - and that's just the men! The sort who are happy to be dressed in leather and lace, rubber fetish gear, towering heels, to be lead around on a collar and chain, to be dressed as Victorian ladies in black hobble skirts with feathered fans and tiny pretty top hats adorned in a veil and pushed to a jaunty angle on their head, to be dressed head to foot in dominant masculine black leather, or a tight prettily coloured feminine corset tightly pulled in to reveal the womanly flesh in all its deliciously delightful decadent glory, to be dressed as a dark angel complete with feathered wings, to be dressed in just a bikini and high heels, to be dressed in military uniform, to be dressed or undressed in exactly the way you want to be, with no one batting an eyelid!!! Great stuff!! And the location of this wondrous place? It was Olympia. And the reason? It was the "Erotica 2007" event.

Its been a couple of years since I was last there, and as before, it's a great day out. Playtime and adult fun for free thinking grown ups!! Whatever you're in to - it was there. Whatever you like dressing up in, whatever new toy you want, whatever hedonistic lifestyle you're into, it was there. And also what was there, was one of my main reasons for going - as, as far as I was concerned, it was a work day. I was there to meet my fellow members of the Guild of Erotic Artists who have regularly exhibited there and some of the artist members also have their own stands selling erotic art to the discerning public. So, a good chance for me to meet some new colleagues and say hi to them, introduce myself and make my presence known. And what a friendly welcome I got from all of them, even though I met them all individually - seven members, seven friendly faces, seven conversations about erotic art, marketing and selling art, trade fairs, exhibiting erotic art, trying to make a living as an erotic artist, seven conversations showing interest in each other as artists, and as people. I was told by the majority that its one big happy family, where we support one another, we have the backing of the others to use as a power against other organisations to help us to get better facilities and promotion for our work, we help and assist, and where one person may not know the answer to a question, they will know of someone else who will! What a positive and upbeat reception I got! And feel like I've made some new friends already with them - and am looking forward to meeting them all again when I can next get to see them.

And my purchases for the day? ..................... Well, I found some gorgeous erotic art books, full of life and passion and inspiration for erotic art, and some back copies of "Jade" magazine, full of gorgeous black and white photos of glamorous models in suggestive poses, and I also bought............... well, I'll let you guess what else I bought.....................

Vanilla land hiding Spice world

I've had some very candid and interesting conversations recently with a variety of individuals that has led on to me thinking about the different lifestyles that people have. The majority of the populace seem to live ordinary lives, doing the usual vanilla things that make up their world, and consider that any pictures concerning people in any state of undress are basically disgusting, and they'd far rather have a pretty landscape hanging on their wall any day. A very few extrovert people like to live alternative lives, and are happy to advertise to the world their various kinks and fetishes and don't care who knows. Then there is the other group - the ones who appear on the surface to be vanilla but underneath, hidden away in the depths and recesses of their lives, they have kinks and fetishes and dark desires too, and like the spice that makes up the variety in their lives, but can't afford for the rest of the people in their world to find out. So they keep it secret. They're the interesting people... with fascinating diverse secrets, and they're the ones I've been talking to recently about erotic art, fantasies and fetishes. They tell me their desires, and I'd love to paint them......

I was told once, by a guy who did a lot of work in the houses of celebrities and rich people, that famous people with lots of money have whatever sexual or pornographic art they want on the wall because they're not concerned about what the neighbours or Mother-in-law will think. They do it because they can. And we probably all would, too, in their position. So, is the art we put on our walls, what interests us? Or what we think we should be showing to the visitors to our homes?