mary-masked

The Orgy Paintings Ride Again

Published: June 13th 2018, 5:45:35 pm

I feel like I started these paintings about three lifetimes ago.

But, really, it was 2006.

I was in a party that happened to turn into an orgy (my first) and what struck me about it was how sweet it was. Most people think of orgies as shocking, lewd, often a little bit scary, but my experience was one of kindness, loving, and impeccable manners. There was a lot of asking permission and considerate sharing. Despite there being multiple women and one man, it didn't feel like a male fantasy because he wasn't the center. No one was. Or, rather, the center moved fluidly from person to person. Individual dynamics seemed to fall away as we all became one communal experience of pleasure.
I'm tempted to say that if most people had sex this way, there would be no war but it's not really about the sex that would make that true. It's the compassion and empathy and emotional maturity it took to make this sex happen.
It was, and still is, one of the most beautiful experiences I've ever had.

With permission, someone took photos of the event but when I saw them I was a bit disappointed. As snapshots they were fine, but they didn't do anything to capture the feeling of the experience. But as I looked at them, I saw flashes of it in a look, an expression, a composition that would be beautiful with the right cropping and tweaking.

I planned a series of twelve, got clear acrylic cut to custom sizes, finished two, and then life happened. But I held on to them through 5 moves, scandalizing movers and periodically feeling bad about not working on them.

But now my friend is opening a venue. And part of it is an art gallery. And, after a somewhat embarrassingly long time, I realized "Wait, I have art!"

So now the orgy paintings are back on the project rotation. Unlike most of the work I did over a decade ago, I think these paintings are still really good and I'm looking forward to working on more of them.