Eros meets paint brush
The Birds and Bees edition of Art Blotter Plus 🕊🐝
Reader alert: this post contains tasteful adult content, i.e., images and text about…sex!
Fascination Inspiration…
Some of you know that one of my many missions in life is to encourage openness about sexuality.
Louise Bourgeois, the famous sculptor, was a member of the Fight Censorship Group, a feminist collective that defended the use of sexual imagery in artwork. Founder Anita Steckel wrote:
“If the erect penis is not wholesome enough to go into museums, it should not be considered wholesome enough to go into women.”1
Of course not all art is appropriate for all ages or all people. I was pleased to see a separate room featuring some very explicit art in a recent exhibit called “Japanese Prints in Transition.”2 This sign was clearly posted as one entered the room:
I wrote this in my upcoming art book/memoir, Art & Love: My Life Illuminated in Egg Tempera:
“I don’t think people talk enough about sex, and what it means to have a fulfilling sensual relationship. This may result in sex becoming something dirty and furtive, a source of unhappiness or even relationship breakdown.”3
Many of us are familiar with The Kiss by Gustav Klimt:
but don’t know that Klimt made many explicitly erotic drawings:
The great landscape and seascape artist J.M.W. Turner created many erotic drawings throughout his life. John Ruskin, the 19th century art critic and major collector and proponent of Turner’s paintings said:
"…painting after painting of Turner's of the most shameful sort - the pudenda of women - utterly inexcusable and to me inexplicable."4
Ruskin claimed to have destroyed this art in a bonfire in 1858 to protect Turner’s reputation. But 45 years later in 2003, Ian Warrell, a Turner expert and curator, wrote that the collection was found intact at the Tate Museum in London. Apparently Ruskin did not have the heart to destroy his idol’s work.5
Tina Maria Elena Bak, a contemporary Danish watercolor artist, devotes her work to exploring sensuality. She has a book coming out, Sensual Nature. Here are some of her paintings:
Here’s a tiny painting I made many years ago while visiting an actual black sheep farm:
From My Easel…
It’s a bird…it’s a plane…..it’s…. a vibrator! I’m still slaving away on my 8 foot painting, Fish Without Bicycle.
Painting a vibrator to look like it is vibrating is daunting. I was hoping to share the successful outcome but instead here are some failed attempts. I can think of many better ways to spend my time but I will not give up!
The title of the painting, Fish Without Bicycle, comes from the feminist saying
“A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle.”
The slogan was popularized by feminist Gloria Steinem but was actually coined by Irina Dunn, an Australian writer, social activist, and filmmaker.
“The concept that a woman does not need a man to experience pleasure was promoted by Betty Dodson, a sex educator who pioneered the sex-positive feminist movement. Dodson was still conducting workshops at the age of ninety-one, teaching women how to achieve orgasm. She passed away in 2020. Traditionally, her workshops featured the Hitachi Magic Wand, the vibrator pictured in the painting.” — quote from Art & Love: My Life Illuminated in Egg Tempera
Interesting article about the Hitachi Magic Wand.
Book Update… Art & Love: My Life Illuminated in Egg Tempera
The manuscript is complete and is waiting for my designer, the fabulous Domini Dragoone to complete other projects. She assures me she’ll be able to start within weeks. Domini shares her art and adventurous ex-pat life in Lisbon on Instagram:
Poll…
Boyfriend is working on a headshot of me for the back cover of the book. Which do you prefer if any?
#1 - Looking to the side:
#2 - Full smile:
#3 - With turquoise necklace- this was taken last year and may be too low resolution for print:
#4 - Maybe too informal but perhaps something similar with egg and no headphones?
#5 None…keep trying
My Son’s Got Talent!
I love Amos’ historical architectural murals but his lesser known work is dazzling and takes the mind on a trip to who knows where:
I leave you with…
A Song from the Great American Songbook…
Irving Berlin wrote the music and lyrics to Cheek to Cheek in 1934–35, specifically for Fred Astaire, the star of his musical film, Top Hat, co-starring Ginger Rogers.6
Until next time, carry on bravely with hope in our hearts 💗,
Lora
I’d love to hear your thoughts about this post or anything else:
Raub, Deborah Fineblum. “Of Peonies & Penises: Anita Steckel’s Legacy”. July 12, 2012. Jewish Women's Archive. Retrieved 12 January 2013.
“Japanese Prints in Transition: From the Floating World to the Modern World“ at the Legion of Honor, part of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. The show closed August 18, 2024.
“I don’t mean to imply that a lifestyle that does not include sex, partner sex, or sensuality is in any way inferior. I believe it’s about having choices and the ability to change course throughout our lives.” -From Chapter 19 - Art & Love: My Life Illuminated in Egg Tempera
This Ruskin quote was reported to have been said in conversation with the writer Frank Harris. I was unable to locate the precise reference.
Ian Warrell, a Turner expert and curator at the Tate Britain, says that a painstaking trawl through Turner's work has led him to conclude that most, if not all, the erotic art still remains in the collection and that the bonfire, said to have occurred in 1858, almost certainly never happened. Mr. Warrell's essay first appeared in the British Art Journal in 2003, but received scant attention beyond the scholarly world.
Lyrics to Cheek to Cheek:
Heaven, I'm in heaven
And my heart beats so that I can hardly speak
And I seem to find the happiness I seek
When we're out together dancing cheek to cheek
Yes, heaven, I'm in heaven
And the cares that hung around me through the week
Seem to vanish like a gambler's lucky streak
When we're out together dancing cheek to cheek
Oh I love to climb to mountain
And reach the highest peak
But it doesn't thrill me half as much
As dancing cheek to cheek
Oh I love to go out fishing
In a river or a creek
But I don't enjoy it half as much
As dancing cheek to cheek
Now dance with me
I want my arms about you
That charm about you
Will carry me through
Yes, heaven, I'm in heaven
And my heart beats so that I can hardly speak
And I seem to find the happiness I seek
When we're out together dancing cheek to cheek
The Great American Songbook is not an actual songbook — it’s the canon of American popular songs and jazz standards from the early 1920s. I love this poignant and clever vocal genre.
Housekeeping…🧹
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Great post, and good luck with the vibrator (not a sentence I thought I'd be writing this morning!!)
The turquoise necklace pic is definitely the best because you look relaxed and happy and the colours suit you so well. Re. your neck, please don't cover up any signs of ageing! We need beautiful older women like yourself on display as you are in order to counteract the false images of youthful perfection that still dominating the media.
No 3 but I do not like the background and you do not have to smile, Europeans do not do that so much and it is ok. A semi profile can be nice as well. Try more.