Rediscovering Cecilia Tan

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I still think there's something bizarre and strange about looking back at the days of Alt.Sex.Stories as "the good old days." I remember running into Cecilia Tan as Ctan on Usenet. Yes, before it was known as "The Internet." I was reading her early works on that newsgroup with a UUCP feed with a 14.4 dialup.
Uphill. Both Ways. In The Dark.

Now, life happened, and I kind of got distracted from making and enjoying erotic works; it seemed that speaking of the immediate ethical failures of Certain People was more important than crafting tales that - even then - were explorations of sexual ethics. I wrote a few, enough to learn just how difficult it is. But then, Ctan and a short list of others were the standard I measured myself against.


But of late I've returned to the field, concentrating on the Graphic Novel format, to discover that Ctan has not been significantly distracted at all. Her Circlet Press imprint has become one of the best known for quality erotic fiction, and may be found in your better book stores, while also providing discreet online fulfillment in print and electronic formats.

There's a significant distinction between erotica and porn; and way back when Ctan proved to me back then that the distinction was not about the amount of explicit sex. Ctan's sex scenes will melt your brain. Even if she's writing counter to your own sexual preference and orientation.

Trust me, that's hard. It's easily as difficult as writing a plausible antagonist who's entire worldview conflicts with you and your protagonist. And crafting a story with a lot of sex so that it's actually a story and not a way of getting from hello to squirt in the shortest number of words is exactly the same challeng as crafting a story with a lot of loud explosions.

If you can top Ctan - you can top Die Hard. You could probably top Die Hard without topping Ctan. Die Hard requires suspension of disbelief. Ctan seduces your belief. I am deeply envious.

Back then a new Ctan story was worth setting aside for dessert. Well, the more things change, the more things stay the same.

I have not yet read "The Prince's Boy." I skimmed part of chapter eight, and then I went back to the first (linked) episode, which has what may be the most compelling hook I've seen in a long time. I'm doing this for ME. Because I absolutely do intend to read it and I want to be able to find it.

It gripes me rather a lot that I can't set the time aside to do that right this instant,but I have deadlines too.

If you use twitter, you can keep up to date with Circlet Press. And - in keeping with the ethos of "Shared Pain is Diminished, Shared Joy Increased" - Circlet Press is twittering wonderful and painful excerpts from their slush pile @Circletslush. Permalink to full story.

Is This Republican Sex?

Full Frontal Artistic Failure

Triple X Yawn from the Hamburg Erotic Art Museum (Mature)

Oil on Canvas by David Russell at Erotic Art Museum Hamburg, originally uploaded by santoshat60.

Because it looks like Republican Sex, as illustrated by an artist working for the Works Progress Administration, in the style of Socialist Realism.

Oil on Canvas by David Russell at Erotic Art Museum Hamburg

The Erotic art museum at Hamburg is very famous for its intense erotic atmosphere.

Unfortunately, the photographer chose this painting instead.

I'm sure this is intended to give one a very formally composed erection... but it just doesn't do it for me.

Perhaps I've insufficient shame and guilt for it's imagery to work on me. Perhaps an homage to "Justine" with a repubican elephant stuck in the background strikes me as rather trite at the moment, or perhaps a tad too arch.

Well, whatever. The fact that it makes me scratch my head and think about why it's so counter-erotic makes it good art instead of failed porn.

Or at least, that's what I'd say if it were in my collection. :P

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Pastel Envy

Every once in a while I stumble across a really interesting artist with an erotic edge plus a twist. I'd like to introduce you to Daniella Uhlig. Daniella goes from innocence to corruption seamlessly, with stops along the whole psycological spectrum. I dare you to predict what the hell to expect from the thumbnails at the link above - it's like artistic russian roulette - every single image turns out to be something not quite what you had expected.

(Her Deviant Art Page is a great way to keep abreast of her work. Heck, keep both!)






Daniella has quite a few prints available through Deev, so you might want to wander over there to see if you have a hole in your art collection... Permalink to full story.

Retro Punk Pinkup By Ariel McMillion framed artwork at ImageKind.com

One reason for this blog is that it gives me the place to put wonderful, sexy things when I run across them. Ariel McMillion is a fellow ImageKind Gallery owner, and has quite a selection of his pinup art for your enjoyment. Hey, if you own a bar and need some great art to spice it up - check out his gallery.

Retro Punk Pinkup By Ariel McMillion :

Originally featured as full-page pinup art in Slitz magazine, Stockholm, Sweden, this alluring piece features a rose-haired, tattooed, lollipop-sucking nude beauty at the wheel of a classic American gas-guzzler, framed in celluloid the color of money. Can little Johnny say "decadence"?

Now, I was intending to brag about my own art, but when I got there, there were kudos in my inbox from Ariel, and I had to go look. Well, I liked what I saw well enough to give him top billing, but now it's my turn. I've just uploaded a couple of new images, and I'd like to show you this one in particular.


This is Eve. And at 36x27" it's just the thing to turn your rec room into a proper bar. It's one of my earlier photomanipulations, and I was surprised and delighted to find it again. By the way, this is probably the perfect "apartment-warming" gift for the young bachelor.

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Japi Honoo to exibit in Atlanta

This starts out with an excited Myspace blast from artist friend, Japi Honoo.


mood excited!!!!!!
Sorry for late news... but from June 8, 2007 through August 4, 2007, is start my exhibition with Jack O'Hearn in a dual show at Nozoku Gallery!!!

If some one live near Atlanta will be nice go to see my image not more in virtual mode...

this is what nozoku gallery wrote:

Jack O'Hearn and Japi Honoo will be exhibiting in Atlanta for the first time, although they are no strangers to the art scene. O'Hearn has an established national following, while Honoo has made a name for herself internationally. ... Japi Honoo sends her love from Venice, Italy, as well her imaginative digital works that subscribe to her motto, "No rules, no rationality, no prototypes: simply real, self-sufficient one-offs." Without being too dark, Honoo's work is "symbolic realities full of sensuality, surreal characters and landscapes balanced on the edge between nightmares and bliss."

This is the second time I've featured her work. Japi Honoo's vision is exactly the sort of thing I had in mind when I started Erotic Truth; a way of looking at the erotic impulse from a completely new and challenging direction. Here are a couple more examples why you should be familiar with her work. I suggest you pass this on to everyone you might know in the Atlanta area. At the very bottom, you'll find a link to her site.

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Meet Monica of Monica Comic

Monica is a Spanish comic book artist I found while browsing Imagekind to find out who the competition is, and I have to turn you on to her site.

Her comic book style art is stunning, detailed, sensuous and while it's cheesecake in every respect, it's also distinctly individual and delightfully whimsical. It is nonetheless highly charged, sexually.

Ah, those Europeans, who see our prissy American attempts to separate erotica and porn to be an amusing little self-delusion!


I don't often do this, but I put one of her wallpapers up on my computer. I'm betting my wife will love it too. I wish I could afford to buy one of her art prints - I may save up, or I may settle for a cafepress poster version of this, my favorite image of hers.

I was less impressed with the online samples of the adult comics she's illustrated; my Spanish is very very very limited, but I could tell that in many cases I didn't really want to know. But she's clearly not a hack artist - and I'd love to see her try her hand at a mass-market mainstream title, like "Spider Man" or "The X-Men" or take on a seriously adult graphic novel for Dark Horse Comix.

Anyway, she's someone to keep an eye on, and if you collect comic book or erotic art, you probably will want a "Monica" of your own.

Oh, do you offer signed prints? If you do love, drop us a comment! Permalink to full story.

And this didn't even win...

PHOTO COMPETITION, "NUDE" CATEGORY

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Domai.com: Beautiful nude models

Domai.com is a very unique site, and my love for it goes back to when I was running munchltd.com - now not mine and not linked.

At the time I was running a reviewed link site for the adult web, and Domai was one of the few listings that I had added on my own hook, as I recall. I used it to floss my brain after rejecting some particularly grotesque site.

One thing about Domai is that it is a unique site, devoted to the positive, personal and non fetishized nude female. Despite the nudity, these images are more akin to the best sports action photography or the most stunning wildlife images. They are stunning, beautiful. Compelling. Oh, right, they aren't wearing clothes.

It really is about the third thing to hit you, and on fourth thought, you realize that if they were, or shot so it was, it would be annoying and distracting. In other words, no more than you have come to expect.

Domai.com is a site I'd enthusiastically recommend to anyone, especially to people who need to see how uplifting and beautiful what the best can be, to understand that in this - and by extension, in most other cases - the difference between the sacred and the profane is a matter of perspective and choice.

This is portraiture of women as individuals, and in it's obvious exploration of nude photography as a collaboration between talented equals, it is on a par with the very best of Lesbian Aesthetic photography, an equivalent respect for the model, but from a male perspective.

There is a zen sort of feel to Domai, an aesthetic and an ethos. There are, for instance, no pop ups, no sales previews, no stealth code and a generous amount of ever-changing materials for people like me, who simply cannot justify the time to enjoy such a site, but would like a moment of pure beauty from time to time.

Speaking personally, I am extremely picky about who and I directly promote - I feel that my reputation is affected by it, and this is even more true when there's money on the table.

I feel affiliation with Domai.com reflects well on me, rather than the other way around, and if you take issue with the art here, you will certainly have issues with my own work.

The founder, Eolake Stobblehouse, is generous with his gentle wisdom, his appreciation of beauty, and his bandwidth, and if you have a love for the pure art of the nude - I cannot think of a better, more rewarding way to spend a few dollars.

tag: Erotica, nude women, nude females, art, artistic nudes, Domai.com Permalink to full story.

So VERY not safe for work

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