I love erotic art. I love erotic nudes. I love the female body. I love seeing an attractive woman naked. There is something particularly delightful about erotic art, erotic photography. It is pleasurable. The above photo is quite nice: how it is framed, the flowery background, the sensuous curves on her body, the diaphanous drapery she is wearing, her expression as she gently holds a flower up towards her face, all paint the poetics of erotic love, beauty, longing and desire. It captures something almost spiritual. It is a beautiful representation of the mysterious allure of a soft, feminine sexuality.

And yet many would call this porn and have it censored.

Why are so many people uncomfortable about sex. I was reading today about a teacher in Ohio who was arrested last February because she had sex with her students. Now, she obviously should not be in teaching, and so it was just that she lost her job,  but she was arrested, and the tv footage showed her in shackles, on her hands and her feet. She is charged with sexual battery. And just whom did she “batter”? She had sex with some of the football players on the school team. That is right, this petite woman “sexually battered” a bunch of football players who are four times the size of her. It is all ridiculous. This woman had consensual sex with someone who was old enough to fully know what they were doing and she is put in shackles and treated like a rapist. It is insane. I guarantee you the guys thoroughly enjoyed what happened. It was my teenage fantasy to have sex with an older woman. It is most young men’s fantasy. Yet we continue to live in this neo-Puritan society of prudes. In some states it is still illegal to sell a vibrator, or at least it was up until a few years ago. Sodomy is still a felony in many states.

I write on erotic art, photography and literature partly because this neurotic, schizophrenic, hypocritical atmosphere we create around sex is toxic. I am sure many of those involved in the prosecution of that woman were themselves enjoying lots of internet porn when they got to the privacy of their own home. And yet they are the first to throw stones at a woman who had sex with someone they do not deem appropriate. Eroticism makes many uncomfortable. It creates tension. Therefore, I enjoy posing erotic nudes, even more explicit art work, simply to stir the societal pot just a little bit. I want to say “fuck you” to those asexual, anal retentive and often hypocritical and lying moralists who have such a sway over our society.

Beauty gives us pleasure. Erotic beauty gives a particular kind of pleasure. There is nothing wrong with that. If there is, then why did God create beauty and give us the capacity to enjoy it, or the capacity to enjoy sexual pleasure? Yet the prudes, the Protestant neo-Puritans, and Catholic neo-Jansenists (or neo-Traditionalists if you like), and the humorless, sexless feminists would have us think and react very differently about sex, eroticism, sensual pleasure and erotic beauty. I am not saying that people should be completely reckless in their sexual lives, that can be dangerous to everyone involved and have severe societal effects, but I think we should be less afraid of the expression of erotic beauty in art and literature, of experiencing erotic pleasure in our own lives, and little less harsh with people who may have made a few sexual mistakes along the way. A thirty two year old woman having sex with high school football players does not deserve to be put in shackles and treated like a common rapist. And all erotic art and photography should not be labeled and categorized by the Michelle Bachmann-Rick Perry crowd as “porn”.

Life, and people, are more subtle, complex and complicated than these simple minded, morally pure idiots make it out to be.

Another nice drawing by Milo Manara

Thanks to a link left in my previous post’s comment section,  http://blondiraq.posterous.com/ , I have learned that the art work in my previous post was by one Milo Manara, an Italian comic book artist and writer born in 1945 who has been creating good erotic art for many decades now. He is also considered one of the best comic book artists alive. I remember being in Italy once and seeing a number of erotic comic books at a newsstand, which seemed strange to me at the time, seeing that we do not have such a comparable industry so openly displayed in the U.S. I have never thought about that much since then, but after learning of this artist, it all makes sense. Leave it once again to the Italians to appreciate good erotic art. It has been going on with them since the Renaissance (although apparently Milo is more appreciated in France than in Italy for his comic book skills). The above illustration is another one of his works. I find it quite well done: sexual, sensual, erotic and down right hot. It brings back many delicious memories for me as well as the present desires with different women in my life right now…

I find this fascinating. As far as art in general, there are many fine artists, artists of great talent, who are working in mediums that others may consider less high brow and serious than traditional artistic mediums. For instance, the illustrations for comic books, magazines, and, in the past, pulp novels, are often created by some very fine artists. In a previous post of mine  https://theracerx.wordpress.com/2010/12/16/pulp-fiction-a-lost-male-literary-genre/ on the male genre of pulp fiction, I write about how I was initially attracted to many of these magazines, when I found them online, through the art work. If people think that somehow magazine artists are somehow inferior to more traditional canvass artists, I think the popularity and growing appreciation of someone like Norman Rockwell, and his influence on American self perception, should help put that myth to rest. These are good artist, just working in slightly different medium. Of course most artists tend to work in both mediums, but the magazine and novel art that is created needs to be acknowledged and appreciated critically more than it is. It is good stuff.

The above mentioned blogger has a nice blog with lots of eclectic erotic art. I suggest those interested in good erotic art visit it.

I am trying to learn more about what erotic art is out there, so anyone who has more information about all this, please, pass it along my way…not only for the information, but also for the pleasure of viewing.

Often when I feel down, good art is uplifting. There is something pleasurable about viewing a nice piece of artwork. Good art captures the spirit of something, the soul that is within, a thing that mere photography often is unable to capture. Good photography often does capture these things; but good art almost always captures these things.

Artists often create their work through great pain. For some artists, this pain is often so intense that the end is usually not a good one. Van Gogh is a good example of this. Much of this brilliance stems from his own inner tortures, his psychic maelstrom. His paintings, alive with color and energy, seem to reflect the frenzied activity that constantly plagued his mind. In the end it cost him his life, to suicide, although it gave posterity some wonderfully intense creations.

I think this is why a good artists can capture the essence of eroticism in a way that transcends the mere sexual. Often through pain we grow spiritually and there is something spiritual about eroticism; lust and sex are merely animal, fun and pleasurable in their own way, yes, but still animal. Eroticism is something deeper, more profound, my transcendent. Eroticism can embody love in a way that pure sex cannot; the hint of something deeper, the allusive poetry of passions and emotions and timeless bonds, all these things can be expressed through eroticism. It is not merely about sex.

This is why good erotic art, whether merely a painting or perhaps more, conveys and captures something of this elemental power in our lives. The good artist, perhaps tested through pain and suffering, has learned to be sensitive to these deeper elements in the world, and through that sensitivity he can create a more nuanced depiction of eros, and often does.

Eroticism is all around us, always, daily. The smile, the flirtatious glance, the seemingly innocent but still suggestive conversation, the imagination and wondering about those we find attractive, the hopes and dreams of a future together with someone, the longing for physical intimacy, all these things are part of the erotic sea we are all awash in. This is why I feel erotic art has a place in the world, as an expression of these basic, fundamental part of our lives. We seek sex, love, intimacy, all of us do. It is the role of the artist to recreate these things in their art forms, whether through writing, music, painting, sculpture, film, or photography. To deny artists this desire would be as futile as denying those prehistoric men who painted buffalo, deer, and lions on cave walls 35,000 years ago the same desire to recreate the world around them.

As I stated above, this need to recreate the world around us through art is a fundamental part of our humanity.  And the sexual, the erotic, whether we like or not, or how much in denial we are, is a basic part of our world. It is part of what makes us human and so, for me, it is a legitimate, even healthy source of artistic expression. Only the likes of Michelle Bachmann and her religious nut case, Taliban like followers who now run the Republican party would think otherwise. I am sure they would enjoy burning the image posted above, just as the Taliban enjoyed destroying those ancient statues of Buddha in Afghanistan a decade ago. Oh yeah, and let me not forget to mention once again my contempt for the neo-Puritanical feminists too who hate all things sexual because they hate all things male…etc. Again, I have equal contempt for both sides of this same humorless and pleasure hating coin. They usually pose a serious threat to all good art and the free expression of artistic desires.

Now by “erotic art” I don’t just mean any drawing or depiction of sex; rather, it has to be good, have some aesthetic merit. Of course this is all subjective judgement on my part, and what I find good someone else may not. That is fair enough. But good erotic art can reach a level of meaning that goes beyond the mere depiction of sexuality. As I said, good erotic art captures something of the soul in what is being depicting, something of the mystery and ineffable allure of sexual desires and fantasies. For me, there is a poetic quality to good art, even erotic art. I seek that out. Some good erotic art can be exceptionally good. Even explicit erotic art, which some might call porn, can be exceptionally good. I hope the things I post on this blog convey some sense of taste and artistic merit. To write about the good, artistic expression of eroticism is what I am striving for. Too much of this is wound up in shame and secrecy and hypocrisy, and those are things I enjoy breaking down. Too many people suffer because they enjoy erotic things; they feel alone and isolated, both men and women, or guilty about their sexual desires and fantasies. If done in a healthy way, I don’t think an enjoyment of erotic art is necessarily bad or harmful. It may not be for everyone, of course, but for many, it is a secret enjoyment and one I celebrate. As I said, seeing good art, and good erotic art, is a pleasurable experience for me.