Local news from SF:

The SF fetish community is abuzz with the news that Wicked Grounds, the city’s first coffee shop and gallery catering specifically to kinksters, opened on September 16th!
http://www.wickedgrounds.com/WG/Home.html

For any business, it’s location, location, location, and at 289 8th St. just off Folsom, Wicked Grounds is at the perfect center of SF kink businesses. Fetish wear giants Stormy Leather/Stockroom, Mr. S and Madame S, and Leather Etc. are all within a block. Alt-porn giant kink.com is just a short walk away at 14th and Mission, as is the beloved community dungeon and playspace SF Citadel at Mission and 9th. A corset fancier visiting Dark Garden might even stroll over from Hayes Valley without breaking a sweat, and settle in for Ritual Coffee or Red Blossom tea.  The cafe features locally produced vegan baked goods and sandwiches as well as milkshakes and waffles. Kinksters gearing up for a night of play at Citadel can now be seen powering up on snacks and playing boardgames, while admiring the artwork on the pale cream walls. The first Wicked Grounds art show is of photographs by celebrity bondage artist Lochai; the next show is by yours truly, Suzanne Forbes.

LA correspondant Elisa Jaeger reports on the Labyrinth of Jareth, a high-fantasy masquerade party held every summmer in Hollywood. While not specifically a fetish event, there are many attendees who cross over from the fetish scene, and there is always a sizable contingent of folks rocking a dark fetish fairy look. This year also featured a special steampunk theme for the Friday night ball! photos by Violet Schrage of VioletPhotography- http://www.violetphotography.com/

Summer 2009

Surely if fairies and elves dance anywhere, it is on enchanted midsummer nights like this. The 12th Annual Labyrinth of Jareth Masquerade Ball on July 10 and 11th 2009 was indeed dreamy, sumptuous and magical. The Fae were out in full force, spreading their wings on the dance floor and partying with creatures of all sorts well into the night.

Produced by Sypher Studios, this event brings together amazing fantasy artists, special effects crew and costumers, resulting in a magical mix of mythology and fantasy. Stellar performances by Desert Sin, Drop Black Sky, Sylphirance, Stellamara, Stilt Circus and more entertained all of the wee and not so wee fairies, dragons, wizards, mermaids, elves, and magical creatures who came through the doors.

Special guest DJ Xian from Malediction Society fame added her own unique mix to the 80’s, ballroom, trip-hop, Celtic and electro eclectic playlist. And a new feature for this year: The Goblin Clockworks special “Steampunk” theme for Friday night’s event. The roaming performance group, Wandering Marionettes, also added to the supernatural ambiance of the event.

The creativity, craftsmanship and sheer imagination that went into all of the performances, sets and costumes is indescribable, as “LoJ” (the nick-name given to the event by repeat attendees) becomes larger and more extravagant each year. LoJ is the culmination of months of costume-making for most, where they can finally don the incredibly detailed fantasy garb, sharing and showing off to each other. And among the whispers heard upon exiting the event: “I wonder what I should be next year…”

World-renowned bondage artist Lew Rubens alerts us to this special event in San Francisco, CA!

BDSM Musical to Premiere in San Francisco

Sacred Pain: The Heroine’s Journey

 Performing arts group Sacred Pain will present their first show, “Sacred Pain: The Heroine’s Journey,” September 12, 2009. The play is an “edgy blend of musical theater and avant garde performance art–a mixed media performance of authentic BDSM content.” The adults-only performance features SF Bay Area performers and musicians including the colorful and talented accordionist, Duckmandu, and rigging by world-renowned bondage expert Lew Rubens. The cast includes popular performers and models Jen Shae, Maya Paradox, Sasha Lexing, Eden Fairsea, Jay Smith and others. The producer and writer, Jack Killough, is a former producer and member of the notorious San Francisco theater group the Cockettes. Killough said, “We believe this is a first-of-a-kind performance that could only be conceived and presented in San Francisco; we’d probably be arrested for it anywhere else.”

 The Heroine’s Journey is a two act musical, part drama and part parody, and presents the “Damsels in Distress” story as its own “Heroes’ Journey” as characterized by Joseph Campbell in his influential book, The Hero with a Thousand Faces. Future titles include “Sacred Pain: Beauty Punished” and “Sacred Pain: A Romance in Rope.” “Our performances will feature live music and storylines that inform spiritual and philosophical archetypes in straight faced parody of universal themes such as the damsel in distress and the action/adventure genre. In addition to great entertainment we hope to educate the public on the much misunderstood subject of BDSM,” says executive producer and lead singer, Maya Paradox.

 The performance will be presented at Mama Calizo’s Voice Factory, next to the Center for Sex and Culture, 1519 Mission, San Francisco, September 12^th, 9:00 PM. Tickets are available online from Brown Paper Tickets, https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/78007. One night only!

For more information, contact DLH Productions, 510-334-2464 or sacredpain@comcast.net.

Here’s something really exciting in fetish art news: the second annual Art Undressed erotic art exposition on 1446 E. Washington Blvd. in Los Angeles, the cornerstone of the LA International Erotic Art Weekend!

http://www.artundressed.net/

It sounds like LA is the place to be this weekend if you’re interested in erotic art!
Opening Thursday, September 10th at 6 PM and continuing to Saturday September 12th at 2 AM, the three day event features award winning erotic art, live music, fashion shows, a body painting at competition, and other live entertainment. On Saturday, the last day of the exposition, there will be a costume party, themed The Good, The Bad, and The Kinky, where attendees are asked to show their true selves with no reservation while representing the entire spectrum from innocent to down right deviant. A mere $15 gets you access to the world’s best erotic art from all ages including paintings, sculptures, photographs and more.

 

Von Gutenberg fetish blog HIGHLY recommends this gorgeous new book of rare, peculiar and sexy artwork by Joe Shuster, the co-creator of Superman. Learn more about this exceptional work here:

http://secret-identity.net/

Secret Identity: The Fetish Art of Superman’s Co-creator Joe Shuster showcases rare and recently discovered erotic artwork by the most seminal artist in comics, Joe Shuster. Created in the early 1950s when Shuster was down on his luck after suing his publisher, DC Comics, over the copyright for Superman, he illustrated these images for an obscure series of magazines called “Nights of Horror,” published under the counter until they were banned by the U.S. Senate. Juvenile deliquency, Dr. Fredric Wertham, and the Brooklyn Thrill Killers gang all figure into this sensational story.

VG/MarquisAmerica recently asked Dark Garden Corsetry’s owner Autumn Adamme  a few questions about how her legendary business got started.

As everyone in the fetish scene knows, Dark Garden is the go-to source for truly handmade, made-to-measure corsetry. The beautiful San Francisco shop is full of dazzling examples of what can be done with top-of-the-line craftsmanship and materials. If you are lucky enough to live in or visit SF, you can see Dark Garden fashion shows at local events. If you are in the area in late November and December, there is a DG store at the famous Dickens Faire. The freestanding Dickens store features display windows where live mannequins pose for hours at a time, surrounded by an admiring crowd.

We asked Autumn about how she got her start:

Did you grow up sewing or learn as an adult?

I started sewing when I was very little – fabric amused me endlessly. We got a sewing machine when I was 8, my mother helped me make my first corset when I was 12 !!

 How did you get interested in making corsets?

I grew up at Renaissance festivals and faires so was fascinated with historic costume early – and I read Victorian era authors very early.

 When Dark Garden was started, there was far less awareness of the corset as a fashion garment in the public consciousness; what gave you the nerve to start such a specialized business?

I started as a costumer, needed to make corsets for each costume – the business led me to focus on corsets – that and working with Monique Motil – she’s a multi-talented artist who sculpts, so when joined forces we couldn’t wait to sculpt people. We had NO idea that we’d be making so many corsets for such varied individuals.

 Who was your first celebrity client?

Hmmm – I believe that was Tilda Swinton for an independant movie, then Pamela Anderson for her show V.I.P. I’ve made corsets for Dita von Teese for a very long time as well – before she was a celebrity. Probably my happiest moment was lacing Siouxsie into a corset, I’m such a spooky girl.

Do you still travel to European fetish events like Torture Garden , or are you simply too busy with the business?

There are a few reasons why DG doesn’t travel much lately, but I’m really itching to go back to London sometime soon.

What year did you first have a Dark Garden store at Dickens Faire, and did you have the famous windows from the beginning?

 Jane Xavier Barnes had a booth called Pemberley’s at Dickens in the late 80s. She’s the originator of the windows. When the Dickens fair started back up in…2000(?) she called me up and insisted that Dark Garden take over the idea. She even gave me the walls of her old booth! The first year I had to chase down pretty girls in the street and beg them to model – not so anymore!!

 Being in the Dark Garden window at Dickens is a privilege Bay Area girls and boys fight for; do you come up with the window concepts in advance or do the models decide themselves what they want to do?

 The window concepts are those of the models. We tend to give them a generalized theme at the beginning of the Fair season and they run with it, even planning windows “for next year” !

 What are some of the mainstream magazines and shows Dark Garden corsets have appeared in ?

V.I.P, Discovery Channel, History Channel, Marie Claire, Playboy, The Wedding Guide

 Who have you always wanted to make a custom corset for?

Madonna, Lady Gaga, RuPaul….

To learn more about Dark Garden’s unique work, visit them on the web:

www.darkgarden.com

http://www.thelondontattooconvention.com/

The Fifth London International Tattoo Convention at Tobacco Dock, 50 Porters Walk, Wapping, London E1W 2SF, on September 25/26/27

London will celebrate the 5th edition of the Tattoo Convention this year. There were 20,000 visitors for the 2008 edition!

Established in 2005, The London International Tattoo Convention, organised by the global Tattoo Life publication, has attracted huge amounts of media coverage worldwide over the last four years and become the Number One Alternative Event Of The Year in London, let alone one of the most crowded and important conventions in Europe.

In the first three editions, the enormous flow of visitors forced the organizers to reconsider the spaces and the first new element of last year’s edition was the new location. After three years at the Old Truman Brewery in Brick Lane, the convention was moved to Tobacco Dock, a beautiful Victorian building totally renovated, located in the heart of London, a few minutes from the Tower Bridge.

The event will showcase the amazing tattoo artists representing the best the art form has to offer, and the biggest show of all- the attendees, who will compete for titles like “Best Back Piece” and “Best Black and Gray”.

The massive, spectacular underground vault floor, with extensive sprawling nooks and crannies, hosts a fetish market, a varied and vibrant alternative market place, coffee shops and other chill out zones with bars licensed until 1.00am. The ‘Vince Ray Rock’n’Roll Voodoo Crypt’, hosted by the man himself, will once again have a nightclub vibe created by none other than Torture Garden, who provide numerous dark, alternative sideshows and entertainment.

The Suicide Girls will be on hand to promote the site, with lots of beautiful girls to meet and greet!

Burlesque dancers featured are Scarlett Daggers, http://www.scarlettdaggers.com/, Luna Rosa, http://www.myspace.com/misslunarosa and Brazilian tattoo artist AND burlesque dancer, Calu C. Fur!

photo of Miss Scarlett Daggers by neolestat on deviantart.com

 

Once again it’s time for Art of Restraint at San Francisco erotic art gallery and performance space Femina Potens!

 SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA – August 22nd, 2009 -

Here at Marquis America we are very excited about the Blacklickorish Latex fashion show at the upcoming Marquis Fetish Ball, on July 18 2009. We talk to Alyssa, Blacklickorish’s creator, about her background:

How did you get started in latex fashion?

Erik von Gutenberg presents in association with Mister S and Madame S the MARQUIS Fetish Ball in San Francisco!

There are only 8 days left to buy tickets at the discounted rate of $35 for the Marquis Fetish Ball on July 18th and the host hotel for out of town guests has reduced their rate to $159 and extended booking until July 5. The W hotel is an incredibly nice hotel for $159/night and very close to the venue as well.

To get discounted tickets now go to www.marquisfetishball.com

San Francsico, July 18, supper club at 9pm MARQUIS FETISH BALL

All of San Francisco’s latex lovelies and fetish freaks will be turned out in their finest for this glamorous event at the sexy Supperclub in SOMA.

There will be performances by international superstar Midori, the Baroness of NYC, Athena Fatale and more, plus a fabulous fetish fashion show, best dressed contest and prizes, and dungeon playroom.

There will be live photography by alt/fetish legend Charles Gatewood, model casting for Marquis America, and amazing beats spun by SF favorite dj Netik.

For those coming from out of town, the event hotel, the W, has reduced their rates to $159/night. This gorgeous hotel is truly a special place to prepare for a dazzling night of fetish fun! 

http://www.starwoodmeeting.com/StarGroupsWeb/booking/reservation?id=0905137244&key=AEA0

Marquis America is incredibly excited about this first-ever event and looks forward to seeing all of you there in your finest!

Questions or Inquiries: press@marquisamerica.com

Nicolette Shrug from Artifice Clothing

I can’t say enough good things personally about Artifice Clothing, a Canadian design house specializing in gorgeous pvc fetish fashions!
I have an AF outfit custom made in metallic red pvc that I just adore, and it was a pure pleasure to work with Emily- everything was quick, courteous and professional.
Artifice is constantly adding designs, and everything they do is unique- no one else is working with pvc with this kind of innovation and expertise.
Check out these amazing fetish fashions: www.artificeclothing.com

 

“About The Tom of Finland Foundation:
In 1984, the non-profit Tom of Finland Foundation was established by Durk Dehner and his friend Touko Laaksonen a.k.a. Tom of Finland. As Tom had established worldwide recognition as the master of homo-erotic art, the Foundation’s original purpose was to preserve his vast catalog of work. Several years later the scope was widened to offer a safe haven for all erotic art in response to rampant discrimination against art that portrayed sexual behavior or generated a sexual response. Today the Foundation continues in its efforts of educating the public as to the cultural merits of erotic art and in promoting healthier, more tolerant attitudes about sexuality. “

ToFF is located in Tom’s old house, a beautiful Craftsman in a fairly sketchy part of Los Angeles; I’ve had the pleasure of attending the Christmas party at the house, and actually been taken downstairs into Tom’s old basement dungeon where leather straps and rubber suiting and bits of chain hang quietly in the darkness.

The ToFF is not just about gay erotic art; they really are committed to supporting erotic and fetish art of all kinds. The house itself is a museum, with erotic works on all the walls, and the people who run the Foundation are fantastic. They have Emerging Erotic Artist contests, social events and fundraisers, maintain archives of erotic art, and support the development of a global erotic art community.

My favorite of their resources is their free international Erotic Art Events Calendar, which lists shows and exhibitions and fairs all over the world.

http://www.tomoffinlandfoundation.org/foundation/events.html

The image shown here is from a show called “Beauties Service”, a collection of gorgeous watercolors by Kate Tastrophe at The Leather Archives & Museum in Chicago.

http://www.leatherarchives.org/
-Suzanne Forbes, Marquis Fetish Art blogger
www.suzanneforbes.com

MARQUIS AMERICA is looking closer at steampunk, is steampunk a new fetish? What do you think?

Some of you may be familiar with steampunk art, fashion and style; others may not be. This trend has come from the world of science fiction and fantasy, and is being rapidly swept into music and art. Imagine a world where computer technology arrived a hundred years earlier, the Victorian age with the science of HG Wells and Jules Verne brought to life.

It’s both a principle and a fashion; it’s about Doing It Yourself and also looking different- in a Neo-Victorian apocalyptic way.

Much Steampunk art is gadgets and technology; you can see fine examples of these at Jake Von Slatt’s Steampunk Workshop:(click here for steampunk fun!)

But fashion is just as important, and everywhere people are making their own Steampunk fashion. Sewing together leather girdles with antique medical corsets, adding lace trim to wrist cuffs and collars, hand-dying stockings and distressing the finish on their granny boots. The look is a mixture of Victorian aristocrat, chimney sweep, and mad scientist. It’s democratic, because it’s DIY; anybody who can get to an Army surplus store can modify a pair of goggles and sew ruffles on a skirt.
How does this look relate to fetish? Well, it’s about object and gadgets being attached to the body to modify it and make it sexier, for one thing. People obsessing about the antiqued finish on their jetpack are very similar to people shining their latex hoods and gas masks. Also, corsets, especially ones by Dark Garden, as sold here on the MarquisAmerica website:
are a huge part of the look, and so are shoes and boots with vintage details and as many extra straps, buckles, pouches and buttons as possible. The hardware is brass instead of silver, the leather is brown, and the heels are not quite so high, but it’s very much like seeing a fetish girl strapped up in giant Pleaser boots, a latex corset with millions of straps and buckles, and a full-sensory deprivation hood.

As far as Steampunk fetish art goes, there are just a few of us doing it so far. You can find my steampunk set on my flickr stream; it’s focussed on fashions I’ve seen on real steampunks as well as fashions I’ve invented.
And if you search “steampunk” on deviantart.com, you’ll get lots of images.
I hope to continue combining my fetish and steampunk worlds, and making sexy pictures of both!
-Suzanne Forbes, Marquis Fetish Art blogger

 

Tooting my own horn here, I’m excited to announce that I have fetish art shows at two beloved SF venues this Spring- one opening March 13 at the Center For Sex and Culture -

http://www.centerforsexandculture.com/

and one opening in mid-May (reception details soon!) at Madame S, the best source of retail fetish fashion in town. (Although Stormy Leather, under the new JT Stockroom management and with Syren latex fashions now available, is running a close second, Madame S. still is the only source for in-house custom latex in SF!)

(On a related fashion note, the girls who do Madame S.’s latex now have a spats company called Ashes and Empires; you can find their gorgeous lace-up leather spats at Dark Garden and on etsy- yum!)

The CSC show is about “The Female Gaze”- it focuses on women objectifying men, and features a number of my hot young lovers posing in fetish fashions.

The Madame S show will be fetish fashion themed, and I’m starting several new pictures for it- if you are a fetish model and have a great outfit you’d like to be painted in, contact me and let’s talk!

Suzanne Forbes, Marquis Fetish Art Blogger

Recently I learned from my friend Midori that the Erotic Heritage Museum in Las Vegas is up and running. This is a wonderful new facility with loads of space for permanent erotic art collections.

“The Museum seeks to bridge the gap between that which is commercial and often misidentified as pornographic, with that which is aesthetic, often identified as folk, pop, and fine art through a common visual language.

The Museum encompasses over 24,000 square feet of permanent and featured exhibits designed to preserve wonders of the erotic imagination as depicted through the artistic expression of acts of sex and love.”

Midori is doing a workshop the weekend of March 14-15th, her very popular Wild Side Weekend plus a talk on Contemporary Japanese Sexual Culture- which is sure to include her articulate and knowledgeable discussion of fetish art!
http://eroticheritagemuseum.com

Well, one place that often gets overlooked is your local comic book store.

Not every city has a selection of fancy fetishwear and gear shops the way San Francisco does, but most cities have several comic stores, and often a very good one.

In your high-quality comic store you will often find an adult section, where specialty items like hentai comics are kept away from the prying eyes of under-eighteens.

You might find, as my gentleman friend and I did at a recent trip to Comic Relief in Berkeley, anthologies and collections of old-school artists like Guido Crepax and Eric Stanton, graphic novels by more contemporary artists like Michael Manning, and thoroughly modern hentai omnibuses that feature tentacles and lolita fashions. For hentai manga I like “Please Miss Yuri” by Syowmaru, an artist who possesses true draughtsmanship and figure drawing skills. A great way to sample various hentai artists is Comic AG, the manga magazine of “art, sex and CG culture” that features the best erotic manga from Japan. 

You will also find something I personally detest- the work of R. Crumb, which I consider to be authentically, not ironically or satirically, misogynist. To me, R. Crumb is anti-sex and anti-woman, but you will find his work right next to jolly sex-positive Cherry Poptart in the “Adult” section, so be prepared.

My gentleman friend loves “Bondage Fairies”, and this is certainly the most widely available of the “Lolita-Tentacle-Bondage-Xenophilia-Fetish” school; there are collections in most comic stores and you can order them from j-pop and manga sites like jlist : http://www.jlist.com/

NBM publishing puts out some excellent erotic titles under their Eurotica imprint, and your comic store staff can usually special order titles they don’t have on hand. “Sizzle” is their erotica quarterly, with stories by a variety of different artists- again an anthology is a great way to feel out which artists you like.

Happy browsing, and let me know if you find something you think is really great!

This upcoming event at Femina Potens, featuring rope artists like Fetish Diva Midori, is another performance I’m involved with. I’ll be drawing live all night as the submissives get tied up and wrapped into works of art themselves! I can’t reccommend this highly enough- it’s a chance to see true shibari artists working up close and personal!

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA – FEBRUARY 21, 2009 – On February 21st 2009 the doors of Femina Potens Art Gallery will open at 7:30pm.   Step inside and experience rope cinching tight into eager flesh as bodies struggle and dance in the air in an erotic ballet of dominance and submission.  Visualize yourself in the midst of beautiful bound submissives molded into sculptural installations.  In the corner of the gallery champagne, strawberries and dark chocolate will be fed to you.  Some of the most skilled rope artists and bondage experts in the country have gathered in this intimate gallery setting to meld art and bondage to intertwine submission and empowerment in a dynamic exchange between two people and an audience starving for connection.   Doors will be locked at 8pm sharp, placing you in the center of the a hot avant-garde bondage scene.  Welcome to the Art of Restraint.

The Art of Restraint will feature rope artists Midori, Princess Donna, Lee Harrington, Lochai, and JD of Two Knotty Boys with bondage models Janice and Raina Degrey and award winning suspension model Madison Young.  Erotic performance art by Bast and Sadie Lune, visual art by Nancy Peach, Suzanne Forbes, Ellen Stagg (of the Independent Film Channel), Barbara Nitke and more. Through rope, restraint, bondage and erotic performance the performers will be delving into our most intricate neurosis. They will be manifesting them in an outward artistic expression of performance or installation.  Our performers will utilize rope, metal, flesh, and other articles of choice that play with the juxtaposition of freedom and restraint, indulgence and self-control.

Lights out at 11pm sharp…unless you are fortunate enough to be a Femina Potens Member.  Members of Femina Potens will be invited to stay for after hours with the artists and models.  To become a member go to the Donate button on www.feminapotens.org and follow the prompts.  All levels of membership will get you into this sexy after hours event.

This will be an evening of decadence and erotic debauchery.  Champagne, strawberries, chocolate, beautiful women, shibari, restraint, and groundbreaking art.  Come be a part of what the SF Gate called “The Most Happening Art Space in San Francisco”.

Advanced online ticket purchase is highly recommended through Brown Paper Ticketing:  https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/52722

‘Art of Restraint’ Erotic Rope Bondage Art Salon
February 21, 2009 @ 8:00 – 11:00 pm
Doors open at 7:30pm
Doors locked at 8:00pm sharp -  no ins and outs
$50.00 per ticket

I’m in this show, and there are also lots of other works- really special are the photos by Fakir Musafar of many famous tiny-waisted women corseted within an inch of their lives! Very much worth seeing!

‘CINCH – THE ART OF CORSETRY’ VISUAL ART EXHIBITION AT FEMINA POTENS ART GALLERY

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA – FEBRUARY 7, 2009 – Being laced into a
corset, can be an exquisitely sensual experience as you are pulled
gradually in from the top and bottom towards the middle. The sensation
of being embraced tighter and tighter is empowering. Join us while we
honor the corset through classic, modern and alternative depictions of
an exquisite garment that has been around for 100′s of years.

‘Cinch- The Art of Corsetry’, engages the artists in sculpture,
bronze, photography and mixed media to celebrate one of history’s
sexiest traditions. Wearable art corsets will be created from
untraditional materials- corsets made from books for our literary
scholars, and metal for those who prefer it a bit more raw.

We invite you to celebrate each artist’s interpretation of corsetry:
Fakir Musafar, Ehren Reed, Suzanne Forbes, Catherine Murty and Angela
Fortain. Join our live corset models at our opening reception on
February 7th, 7:00 – 10:00pm. Get cinched up and have your breath
taken away by our latest exhibit, ‘Cinch – the Art of Corsetry’.

‘Cinch- The Art of Corsetry’ Visual Art Exhibition
February 7 – March 1, 2009

Opening Reception Feb 7th, 7:00-10:00pm

Femina Potens Art Gallery

2199 Market Street San Francisco, CA 94114

Visit www.feminapotens.org for more information

Dr. Sketchy’s Anti-Art School is a lovely free-wheeling life drawing workshop founded by Molly Crabapple of NYC. There are Dr. Sketchy’s in most major cities in the US now, and in other countries as well. If there isn’t one near you, you could start one! www.drsketchy.com for info on how.

It’s traditonal at Dr. Sketchy’s for the model to be “alternative”- burlesque, fetish, pierced, transgendered, you name it- and for the crowd to be drunk and naughty. Folks of any drawing skill level are welcome, and contests with fun prizes like porn and sex toys are part of every event.

Our San Francisco Dr. Sketchy’s is now being run by artist Jessica Whiteside, aka burlesque queen Tinky Sparkle, and this month’s session featured well-known SF burlesque performer and fetish scene queen Citty Rich. Above is my drawing of her!

MARQUIS AMERICA recommends the Edwardian Ball!
This weekend is the Edwardian Ball, the biggest event of the year for folks who love costuming, burlesque, corsetry, circus, waltzing….and fetish wear, since in this town, there’s a LOT of crossover.

In particular, corset fetishery really shines at the Ball- it seems like every girl and half the boys are wearing corsets!

Friday night is the Dark Garden performance, featuring the most beautfiul, most elaborate, most spectacular Dark Garden corsetry on beautiful models in fabulous outfits. If you haven’t seen a Dark Garden fashion show, let me tell you it is really something to see. I just watch and drool.

BTW, you can now order Dark Garden corsets through the MarquisAmerica site!

http://www.marquisamerica.com/catalog/index.php?cPath=34&osCsid=fnibf61pt942k884tmnae8ng86

There will be an art show as well, including some of my own work from my “Sexy Boys” series- cute boys with whips and tentacles! And loads of bands, and burlesque, and circus acts. If you are anywhere near the Bay Area, do try to make it! And if you can’t, there are always amazing galleries of the spectacular fashions up on the site afterwards.

http://edwardianball.com/previously.html

For my birthday last week I got several beautiful books of fetish artwork. Ah, my friends know me so well! One is “Inamorata”, a fancy hardcover collection of Michael Manning’s shiny, sexy, super-fetishy work. http://www.thespidergarden.net/

As MM has designed many tattoos, often for folks in the fetish community, I wonder if any of you Marquis blog readers have one you’d care to share? I’d love to see photos!

I love the combination 0f warmly human faces and crazy mecha-penetration, armature-corsets, and robo-bestiality in Manning’s work; he’s such an unusual talent.

And speaking of bestiality, I also got a book called “Animerotics”, by David Delamare. Some seriously beautiful and freaky work, with circus/goth/burlesque type girls frolicking with, well, circus animals! If you like chicks with animal masks and tails and fire-eating and such, check this guy out! http://www.daviddelamare.com/

In local SF fetish art news, there’s art and crafts night at The Center for Sex and Culture on  Jan 14th- you can bring your knitting! I know there’s patterns for knitting all kinds of naughty parts available on etsy…

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?ref=vl_other_2&listing_id=15616334

http://www.centerforsexandculture.com/pages/upcoming-events-at-CSC.html

Tarts & Crafts — CSC’s artmaking and craft night
Wednesday, January 14, 7pm

Maybe I’ll see you there!

New on the Marquis America website this week is a special section called “Fetish Art”, where collectors can buy limited edition artist’s prints. Artists from the US fetish scene are featured, with exclusive editions available only through marquisamerica.com. Already up is some of my own work, including images drawn live at the San Francisco Fetish Ball and other SF events. There are hot bondage girls and sexy mistresses in tight corsets!

http://www.marquisamerica.com/catalog/index.php?cPath=33&osCsid=sal3mon02980full2jfmt9hk85

Also available is a print of Mistress Dante Posh; Dante posed for me at the Montreal Fetish Weekend this summer and looks quite severe in her latex business suit!

In other news, the deadline for art submissions for the Seattle Erotic Art Festival is January 30, and the event itself is May 1-3, 2009 at the Seattle Center Exhibition Hall. If you live up there, it’s a don’t-miss event!

Posted from Suzanne Forbes, Marquis Art Blogger

www.marquisamerica.com

As your fetish art blogger, let me take this opportunity to toot my own horn; I am myself a fetish artist and one of my favorite things to do is to go to kinky events, dungeons, rubber conventions and fashion shows and sex parties and make live drawings of what’s going on. Erik and I went to Spanksgiving, a local fetish event, this weekend and I enjoyed making drawings of shiny people in latex and naked people being played with!

I am always amazed at the warm reception I get when I do this; people seem to really enjoy being recorded in a way so different from a photograph.

Some nice folks enjoying themselves at a friendly event.Nothing like a wax play performance with a hot girl!This great-looking gal and her latex-clad partner were so hot together!

Hi all you sexy fetish babies on Marquis Fetish Blog, my name is Suzanne Forbes and I’m a San Francisco fetish artist. I’m joining the blog to keep you up to date on kinky fetish art events around the world, talk about great new fetish artists, and hear what you have to say.

Tell me about what interests you as far as fetish art goes- do you like black-and-white comics like Michael Manning or the classic Guido Crepax, do you like photos digitally enhanced, do you like bright colorful images or dark subtle ones? Does fetish performance art interest you?
For example, last weekend at the Center for Sex and Culture here in SF, I saw a pair of hot naked dykes fisting and drinking each other’s blood. It was sexy, but was it is art? You tell me.

Want to see an erotic art show in SF?
Here’s a new one opening at Femina Potens, San Francisco’s Premier erotic art gallery.

COME KICK OFF HALLOWEEN WEEKEND AT THE OPENING RECEPTION OF ‘MORBID FANTASIES’
THIS SATURDAY NIGHT! 
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA – NOVEMBER 1, 2008 – Discover what happens when
Femina Potens delves into the subconscious and combines the whimsical with the
grotesque. This November, Femina Potens presents ‘Morbid Fantasies’. Take
pleasure in the deviously enjoyable artwork of KuKula, Sita Rupe, and Brittany
Howard. Opening reception is November 1, 2008 from 7pm – 10pm. Show runs
November 1 through November 30, 2008.

“Morbid Fantasies” Visual Art Exhibition
November 1 – 30, 2008
Femina Potens Art Gallery
2199 Market Street
San Francisco, CA 94114

Visit www.feminapotens.org for more information