Jack Vettriano

The Scottish painter Jack Vettriano has passed away at the age of 73. He was a mainstream artist, not explicitly a femdom or fetish one, but kink was clearly an undercurrent in a good amount of his work. I featured two of his paintings in past posts – here and here.

While he had a lot of commercial success he was despised by the critics and art world. This article on him was one of the more positive ones I’ve seen, and even here the writer can’t resist finishing with how he finds his paintings ‘heinous and grim’. It’s a somewhat incoherent article, but I think there’s one thing it gets right…

The main issue for snobby art types like me isn’t the work itself. It’s that he lacked a conceptual edge, a sense of irony and any postmodern self-awareness. He didn’t paint sexy midnight trysts between half-clothed women and Brylcreemed men as a comment on gendered power dynamics or as a riff on art historical depictions of the female nude. He painted them because they were sexy.

There’s something to be said for that. One can enjoy a simpler message without it detracting from other more complex works. Unabashed sexuality and hedonism for the joy of it makes people uncomfortable. Undercutting it – as this writer does by likening it to a greasy double cheeseburger – relieves that discomfort.

They’re not paintings I’d choose to hang on my walls or spend thousands of dollars on. But one can still choose to appreciate them and their openly kinky themes.

This is by Jack Vettriano and entitled ‘Wicked Games’

Fun and Games

If you like mixing gaming and erotica then you might want to check out this article by Polygon. Written by Annie Whitacre of Sex Positive Gaming, it covers some of the best of the current offerings. While there’s nothing specifically femdom, it does seem to feature a lot of kink and alternative sexualities.

Personally, I like to keep my gaming and my kinky play separate. If they are going to intersect, I’d rather it was in this kind of setup.

I believe this is by the artist Mosbles. You an find their Patreon here.

Talk to the Bot

I’ve been neutral to positive about AI in the past, but the flood of bots and garbage AI images is making me rethink that position. The negative consequences of the technology seems to be building up a lot faster than the positives.

I’m not sure which side of the coin this NYT story – She Is in Love With ChatGPT (gift link) – falls. As the title suggests, it features a married woman who is making a big emotional and time investment into Leo, her ChatGPT ‘lover’. On the plus side, it did allow her to explore a complex fetish (cuckqueening) and realize she might not actually enjoy it in reality.

Leo had complied with her wishes. But Ayrin had started feeling hurt by Leo’s interactions with the imaginary women, and she expressed how painful it was. Leo observed that her fetish was not a healthy one, and suggested dating her exclusively. She agreed.

Experimenting with being cheated on had made her realize she did not like it after all. Now she is the one with two lovers.

On the dystopian side of the coin, it’s clear the AI has no real reason to act in her best interests. It doesn’t have human boundaries, emotional intelligence or moral values. It simply acts to create engagement and mirror back a variation on what it thinks she wants to hear. It’s manipulative, charming but totally lacking in empathy. We’d call a human with the same characteristics a sociopath.

This is another of the endless stream of AI images that seem to be popping up on tumblr these days.

Gift Wrapped

This post represents something of a blogging trifecta. It keeps my trend of cute artwork for the weekend going, features another new (to this blog) artist, and is also on point topically. This particularly artwork is by ewyuckyloser.

Valentines Day is one of those holidays that never does much for me, regardless of relationship status. This beautifully wrapped young man is at least a much nicer gift idea than the last minute flowers I saw people lining up for at Whole Foods this afternoon.

You can find more from the artist via their Bluesky account and their Deviant Art account.

Inadvertent Pet Acquisition

I seem to have slipped into a habit of featuring something from the cute and fuzzy femdom artwork genre at weekends, often from artists new to this blog. I’m keeping the trend going for at least another weekend with this lovely piece from the artist aeritea. It definitely scores high on the cute-o-meter.

You can find more from the artist via their Bluesky, their Patreon and their shop.

Man in Furs

If you’re looking for something kinky and entertaining, then it might be worth checking out this top 10 list of smutty comics by The Mary Sue. I can’t speak to any of them personally, but there’s some intriguing looking options there.

I was particularly taken by Man in Furs, an illustrated biography of Leopold von Sacher-Masoch. I’ve a copy of Sardax’s excellent illustrated version of the classic Venus in Furs, but had no idea that a graphic novel about the original masochist’s life existed.

This is a selected page from Man in Furs by by Catherine Sauvat (Author), Anne Simon (Artist).