An erotic history
Begun in 2023 and ongoing
An Erotic History is a series of small watercolours which recall erotic memories from the time that I was a child of around eight or nine years old and continue to the present.
I remember watching a ‘Cowboy and Indian’ movie when I was a child, still small enough for my feet not to touch the floor when seated in front of the TV. The Indians, as was the convention at the time, were presented half clothed. I had no knowledge of sex, nor until that moment of the power of the visual to excite me. I was moved to go to my room, undress and wrap myself in a pillowcase, fashioned after the image of the actors. Thus, mimetically garbed, I crawled under my bed. I lay there in the half -light, strongly aroused by the memory of those flickering black and white images.
As I remember moments of my erotic history I write them down and make a small sketch as a quick aide-memoire, which I paint later.
I only use watercolour for these works as it is the medium most tender in the hand and also because one has to work rapidly with no chance for revision or self censorship.
