Responses to art

New relationships usually do, really should involve a shift in perceptions. Sharing another’s heart and mind should enrich yours.

Obvious to anyone whose looked at this site I’ve collected lots of F/m artwork. Put considerable time and Google searching into acquiring the images.

When Alexandra saw the faces on the Bill Ward women her first response was to object to their ugly faces. I’d never noticed. She’s right.

Bill Ward’s art was easy to find. In my shop we’ve carried European BDSM erotica and his old drawings were used as illustrations. When I first found myself drawn to F/m S&M the were there to be viewed.

Not that I cared about the women or the men in the drawings. It was the scene. A whip cutting into the air lacerating a man’s buttocks.

Now that she’s pointed out what harridans the women are the power of his art is greatly diminished.

Likewise she’s noticed details that that didn’t register with me: the Domina’s expression, the slave’s adoring look. Or that the bound man is wearing ballet slippers. Neither of us care for feminization. If I’d caught the slippers the picture would’ve been left on the web.

Or blood. One of the drawings I most enjoy has drops of blood oozing from the man’s scars. I’d never given that a second’s attention. It wasn’t that I was hankering for bloodied thighs. The drops didn’t register.

Mostly I still look past them. But in recollection I don’t remember seeing anything similar in the worst whipping photos. The blood is artistic license.

We both enjoy Sardax’s work. For me it is the icy haughtiness. The enjoyment with which they exact what they require of the man (or ‘male creature’ as OWK would put it).

I could go on about the various F/m D/s artists whose work I enjoy. But you see them scattered across this website’s pages.

The other day I had a chance to look more closely at his work. We have a copy of the collection of his traditional glamour pin-up art at the shop. Perhaps if the softer lines and richer textures appeared in his F/m work I’d enjoy them more. Probably so. Though he uses black hosiery to the point of exhaustion. His girlie cartoons don’t strike me as that rich with wit. Probably one of the reasons that he wasn’t hired along with Arno and Vargas in the early days of Playboy.

You’ve probably never seen From Sex to Sexty. Envision if you will the most vulgar, sexist cartoons. Now take your imagination a couple of magnitude of orders lower. Bill Ward was a better draughtsman than most of their artists. Which says little. He wasn’t as good a cartoonist: his punch lines are a bit limp.

The latter cartoons were look much like his S&M work. Perhaps his fingers were failing or his spirit: he felt exploited. Or the low rate made him hasty.

(To round this out: I’ve long been familiar with his comics work. His line while clean was never more than pedestrian. The humor never ascended above the obvious.)

By all account he was never ashamed of his S&M work. While not an admirer I’ll salute him for that.

If you are a Bill Ward fan you surely think I’m very wrongheaded. You can bitch at me in the comment form if you wish. Understand though this isn’t an issue of ‘truth’ but the personal crochets of erotic aesthetics.