Light + Dark: Tones of Sensuality

Duane Cramer bio:

Noted early in his career for a comprehensive overview of his own family’s history and ancestry, Cramer’s talent in subsequent years has soared into prominence with numerous exhibits to his credit.

Based in San Francisco, where in 2001 he was a Grand Marshal of the Pride Celebration, Cramer’s role in HIV/AIDS activism stems from deep-seated personal experience. His father, Joe J. Cramer, Jr. Ph.D, was lost to AIDS in 1986.

Duane has photographed notables, including civic leaders President Bill Clinton, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Mayor Willie Brown; gay celebrities Reichen, Ari Gold, Michelle Wolf and Keith Boykin; and fashion models Rupaul, Brooke Shields and Maria Grazia Cucinotta.

Duane’s images have graced the pages of The Advocate, Girlfriends, Harper’s Bazaar, Out and more.

Watch the GVTV interview with Duane Cramer and Carol Queen!

]]> http://magazine.goodvibes.com/2007/06/13/duane-cramer/feed/ 3 http://magazine.goodvibes.com/2007/05/31/girl-fuck-comic-an-introduction-to-girl-on-girl-lovin-2/ http://magazine.goodvibes.com/2007/05/31/girl-fuck-comic-an-introduction-to-girl-on-girl-lovin-2/#comments Thu, 31 May 2007 17:38:52 +0000 Erika Moen http://magazine.goodvibes.com/2007/05/31/girl-fuck-comic-an-introduction-to-girl-on-girl-lovin-2/ GIRL FUCK is by Erika Moen. “An introduction to some of the mechanics and mentalities that arise in a female-on-female relationship that I did for my Feminist and Queer Theories course, senior year.” For more information or to purchase the comic visit the author’s website: www.projectkooky.com/erika.

Play GIRL FUCK

Sonia Li Artist’s Statement
Vaggi Journey Video

I was made in Taiwan, and then got shipped off to SUNY Purchase eighteen years later with some art supplies.

My art reflects my belief in being honest to others and myself.

NO BULLSHIT. NO COMPROMISE.

Humor. Sincerity. Innocence. Bravery. Tutus. Sparkling.

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Holding hands. Holding on.

My vaggies and penises have traveled to many places including the Whitney Museum in New York City and Third Ward Artist Space in Brooklyn, at the same time juggling between working with feminist artists and surviving in New York City.

The vaggies and penises have won the hearts of many cold New Yorkers.

XOXO
Sonia Li
aka
Ms. Vag-I-Licious

www.myspace.com/foxy_vag and tristanperk@yahoo.com.

Copyright 2007 Sonia Li

Dené Shelton

Artist’s Bio

Dené Shelton is a queer, sex-positive artist living and working in San Francisco. She most recently showed her acrylic and mixed-media paintings in a solo show entitled Body Splendor at The Women’s Building in November. She also writes a monthly column called “Femme Biker” for Urban Moto, a San Francisco-based motorcycle magazine. Dené is a social worker and is applying to graduate programs in Painting, Writing and Expressive Arts Therapy. You can check out more of Dene’s work at www.deneshelton.com and her myspace page.

There are pieces from two series here. The first is a series of paintings representing the vagina. These paintings imitate, explore and celebrate women’s sexual physicality. The second series utilizes my body in the creation of various form images. Paint is very physical, a medium which mingles naturally with my body and my being, a release as I release it on the canvas. Having always loved the feel of paint on my skin, I began to paint my body and apply it to the canvas. This allowed me not only to become more intimate with the creative process, but illuminated a new means for me to celebrate my body as I captured its image.

Copyright 2007 Dené Shelton.

Evert Grobbelaar

Of Dutch ancestry, Evert Grobbelaar grew up near Capetown, South Africa. He has resided for the last 27 (?) years in San Francisco, California. He collects, among other things, the original work of his favorite artist, South African Elmarie Berg. His major pop culture heroes include, but are not limited to: Grace Jones, Kate Moss, and John Waters.

Using NIKON as his medium, and the human form as his canvas, his subjects are from many and varied backgrounds. The common thread in these works is his ability to capture the hot and cold, light and dark, serene and sinister aspects of human nature and the beauty that lies therein.

Michael Rosen

I don’t think any artist can satisfactorily explain what compels him to do what he does. My photography has given me an entry into the lives of many people. That entry has allowed me to get an insight into how they conduct themselves on our cosmic journey — to help me make my choices. And then I’ve published work to help others make their choices.

A long time ago I challenged myself to do important, excellent and original work – with no excuses. In 1983, that attitude, a wish for adventure and some lucky circumstances gave me the opportunity to photograph a real S/M sex scene. What I saw opened my eyes to a world I’d not imagined before — a new for me world of pleasure — consensual erotic power play. Sexual magic. Dominance and submission. Sadism and masochism. Giving and receiving erotic intensity. Giving and receiving pleasure. Role playing and role reversal. Fun. Sex.

I became part of the San Francisco Bay Area radical sex community as a photographer and incorporated some of what I learned into my personal life. Later, wanting to put my photographs out into the world, I self published the book Sexual Magic: The S/M Photographs in 1986. With my action photographs, I included interviews with players and attempted to present a reasonable spectrum of points of view on just what S/M is. The book is for people who are not necessarily heavily into S/M, but rather are curious about it. Perhaps they’re doing some things in their private lives and need validation that other people, intelligent and clear thinking people, are doing things, too.

In the late 1980s, as my community discovered erotic body piercing and tattooing I also eagerly explored that world, both personally and photographically. Leaving behind action photographs, I made studio portraits of people in their sexual roles. My topic widened to include erotic piercing and tattooing, gender play and other aspects of radical sex, as well as S/M.

I self published Sexual Portraits: Photographs of Radical Sexuality in 1990. I again interviewed people, this time looking for a definition of radical sex. Some topics were: sexual energy and spiritual energy; ways to play, as fire, ice, electricity, bondage, etc.; orgasm from pain; phone sex; rape fantasies; multiple personas; reasons for erotic and ritual body piercing; and, Wicca, the ancient goddess oriented religion. The interviews center on why these people do these things.

Although Sexual Magic and Sexual Portraits were about sexuality, in fact the books contained little explicit sex. For my next project I tackled the topic of sexual art, a term I believe I invented. Making art from images including explicit sex. I made pictures of sexual behavior, explicit and extreme. The photographs show interesting behavior, behavior perhaps somewhat unusual in ‘Middle America’, and are well crafted and presented. I believe that the function of art is not to merely decorate our nests and make us feel good, but also to challenge our notions of what our world is about.

I self published this work as Sexual Art: Photographs That Test The Limits in 1990. This book has no interviews, but it has an introduction by me elaborating on the above paragraph and an afterward by David Steinberg that explores what, indeed, sexual art might be.

My latest book, published by a San Francisco firm in 1998, is called Lust & Romance: Rated X Fine Art Photographs. Here I explored the gamut of human sexuality, from the vanilla to the outrageous. From hugging and kissing to explicit sex, some ‘normal’ and some not so normal. The book begins with foreplay, continues to images of greater arousal, climaxes with a graphic orgasm and ends with hugs and ‘you were great darling’.

As in all my work, I included people of all genders and persuasions. The message is: it’s all the same, whatever your plumbing and whatever the plumbing of your partner, so long as you’re having safe, sane and consensual fun.

As always, the people I photographed were from my community — real people, not professional models — so there are few phony breasts or washboard abs. I chose people who knew each other well sexually, whether from long term or short term relationships, and photographed them having a good time. I don’t have people act out a script I’ve written; I photograph what they do in their daily lives. I generally traded photographs for a signed release, but I have paid people. Not a lot, certainly not what porn pros would expect, but not a token.

I’m currently continuing with “Vanila Sex”, in the vein of “Lust and Romance”, with plans to produce another book. Surely I haven’t exhausted the topic of human sexual behavior.

Check out my work at www.michaelrosen.com.

Copyright 2007 Michael Rosen.

Sugar Rush

By Tara Alton

When I met him, I was a little awestruck with his blue eyes, dark wavy hair and dimples, but I told myself he wasn’t someone you could take seriously.

No one with his dreamy looks could ever be interested in me, and yet when he started to look my way, I wanted to make sure that I wasn’t going to be another notch in his bedpost. I told him that if he was ever going to get near the vicinity of the top button of my pants than he was going to have to court me in an extraordinary way. He had to discover the one thing I truly loved and he had to demonstrate this knowledge beyond the plain and simple obvious gesture.

Sure, it was easy enough to buy a girl flowers and candy, and I starting to think he was way off the mark with a dozen daisies and a box of assorted chocolates from the grocery store, but after he caught me savoring a caramel when I thought he wasn’t looking, he realized my true love was possibly sugar.

It was then he brought me a single piece of elegant milk chocolate layered with pecans, caramel, and marshmallow that was tucked inside a little, pristine paper white bag. This was the dreamiest concoction that had ever entered my mouth, and by the time I finished it, my panties were feeling positively moist.

During the next few weeks, more delights followed. He took me for a chocolate milk shake in a retro malt shop, a plate of French toast drizzled with warm maple syrup in a diner, and a cupcake with so much frosting that it blew my mind in a local bakery that I never knew existed.

I was becoming saturated with sugar in my every pore. I had never been happier. By the time he brought me a perfect pink frosted donut to my apartment, every sprinkle like a jewel, I decided I was going to let him in the region of the top button of my pants.

As I sat next to him on the sofa, the last crumb of the donut safely between my lips, I moved his hands over to my waist. With fumbling fingers, he undid my first button. A sigh escaped me. Now his hand was trembling inside the waistband of my pants, the warmth of his fingers on my skin, his fingertips unknowingly brushing the beginnings of my treasure trail. His lips were next to my ear.

“If you let me go any further, I will buy you all the sugar I can find from Detroit to New Orleans,” he said.

I paused, knowing full well that I was already going to let him strip me bare like Lady Godiva and lick every sweet inch of me, inside and out, but I just couldn’t resist.

“I’ll just take another piece of that heavenly chocolate,” I said, pushing his hand toward the neither regions of my panties where the other epicenter of true bliss lay.

The End

Copyright 2007 Tara Alton.

Linda Psomas

One day I began working figuratively and found it liberating.

While studying the relationship of nude to naked I went at a stack of catalogues and brochures with a pair of scissors and consequently created a series of encaustic collages called Little Pieces. Fetishizing these fragments, the sensual and the illusion mutually articulate and delimit each other into a morphed eroticism. It’s like the myth of Eco and Narcissus with the persistence of an internet pop-up.

For more information see www.lindapsomas.com.

EXPOSED: Experiments in Love, Sex, Death and Art
from the Love Art Lab of Annie Sprinkle and Beth Stephens

(Photo Credits: Julian Cash, Charles Gatewood, David Steinberg, and Lori Gordon)

What happens when former porn star, sexologist and performance artist Annie Sprinkle falls madly in love with experimental artist, professor and sexy dyke playboy Elizabeth Stephens? They create a theater/performance art show about their relationship exploring artificial insemination, breast cancer treatments, queer weddings, art experiments, aging, sexuality and more. As a response to the war, anti-gay marriage sentiment and the politics of breast cancer, Annie Sprinkle and Beth Stephens invite everyone to a genuine celebration and critical public exploration of the deepest realms of romantic, sexual and familial love to bring about positive social change.

Artist Statement

The war is still raging and so is the love art laboratory. In our second year we are exploring creativity and sexuality in some new, productive and exciting ways. We aim to go deep inside our second chakra, and to use our discoveries to inspire others on their quests.

We completed our first year of survival and security by facing death together. What could have destroyed our relationship ended up making us even stronger, more secure and ambitious. We are less afraid of death and even happier to be alive. We are more committed to spreading love through our art to address the critical social and political issues that we face as individuals and as a society. We still believe in the old adage that the “personal is political.”

We find hope in our happiness and creativity. We act locally, making art to spread love to our communities and to make the world a better and more beautiful place. Our work becomes larger than our personal relationship. This last year we produced our theater piece, “Exposed; Experiments in Love, Art, Sex and Death.” We performed “Cuddle, “ in numerous venues around the world, we’ve lectured in over a dozen museums, universities, colleges and even gave a Love Art sermon at a Unitarian church. We have exhibited our visual art in numerous galleries. And through our free Sidewalk Sex Clinics we have answered a wide range of questions about sex, love and life.

Wedding by wedding we aim to help bring about positive social change. We hope to inspire others to celebrate and explore their creativity and sexuality in order to activate their individual and collective agency in the world.

This year we are honored to have the brilliant sexologist Carol Queen officiate our vows. For our second wedding we will collaborate with our guests, most of whom are artists, academics, and sex workers. These collaborations will be credited on our website and the ephemera will be installed in our gallery exhibitions. We will also collaborate and spread our love online with others via a live web cast. This can all be viewed on our web site www.loveartlab.org.