About a month or so ago was the deadline for art submissions to SEAF. This year I decided (at the last minute, like ya do) to try my hand at submitting some of my art to the show. The jury received some 2000 submissions from around 500 artists. Man am I glad I didn’t have their jobs trying to pick the art for the show this year! I didn’t get selected, but that’s ok. Once I submitted my art I realised that I wasn’t so sure I wanted to sell it anyhow. Art has always been a cathartic thing for me, and my pieces end up deeply personal and emotion laden as a result. I’d held off sharing what I’d done until after the jurying, but now that it’s over I feel comfortable sharing.
I don’t generally title my pieces, so excuse me if I don’t give you names for these. While I submitted them with names, I far prefer them without. The first piece I submitted came of my and my Brother’s work as a Bootblack. It’s become a huge part of my identity within the Leather community, and has provided me a safe and healthy outlet for my service-mindedness. Pencil on journal-paper.
The second piece comes from a much more personal place, and is the one I had the most reservation on submitting (and sharing here). Drawn from a combination of my emotions surrounding the Daddy/girl dynamic which I have been a part of over this past year or so, it sets a big part of me open to the world. I have a deep response every time I look at this piece, both physical and emotional. Pencil on onionskin paper.
This last piece is one I didn’t submit. I thought about it, but chose not to. I made it for someone specific, and decided (against their encouragement even) to keep it that way. I considered having giclée prints made of it for the show, and also of another piece I’d made for the same individual, but in the end I didn’t go through with it. I’ll share it here though, because I really like it, and I’m in a sharing kind of mood.
