Musings after the Seattle Erotic Art Festival

Spirit shines through sexual beings

Hello art lovers!
I love women. I totally appreciate the beauty natural to feminine energy. Is it evolution, societal suppression, or a fearful – hardwired in our brain – need for monogamy that drives our endless mission for connection, sex, love, and wholeness?
What makes this attainable for some and so elusive for others? Do we block ourselves from a fully feeling and passionate life when we sometimes block our very real need for sex and touch? What happens when we let go and allow sensuality into our lives?
Finding freedom in collective sexual awareness
After a lonely weekend at Seattle's annual erotic art festival, where I submerged myself in an amazing smorgasbord of high-end, highly creative erotic art (my own included), I found myself immersed in a deeper spiritual awareness of what it means to embrace, live, and feel the energy, power, and beauty that pours through our sensual and sexual energies. In order to dive a bit deeper into these reflections, I spent time observing and talking with many of the interesting people and artists I saw at the festival. I intuitively heard and understood subtle core beliefs and attitudes underpinning fascinating perspectives on feminine and masculine energies, sensuality, sexuality, and eroticism. I felt embraced by the collective desire to transcend conditioned thinking on these human realities in order to reach something higher – something much more fulfilling.
Erotica in Action
A woman clad in fantastic rubber bondage to a St. Andrews Cross draped in a full bodied hooded cat suit, blindfold, and wearing a corset allowed patrons to touch and pet her. Oh my God! How erotic it was, this anonymous woman totally surrendering to the hundreds of hands sharing the chance to pet her. I really enjoyed this opportunity to touch the hot rubber on a hot woman's body heated up – yes, it did turn me on! To be able to touch a sensual woman and then to feel sexually alive is delicious and healing. A variety of gender based themes were among many of the displayed works of activist groups, gay, lesbian, and transgendered organizations. Poetry, literary art, sculpture, erotic animation, and erotic paintings moved the emotional body and stimulated a much welcomed sensory experience.
Sexually charged human expression
Live shows, performances, demonstrations, music, dancers in cages, naked and barely naked sexy people, amateurs, and highly experienced cosplay action served to excite and rouse the senses. I also enjoyed watching various Acro-yoga performers, as the core of this beautiful sport and art form is trust and connection. There was so much sexual energy in tow! It was everywhere, and it served one purpose: to connect, awaken, and inspire. A figure drawing session of two men wrapping a woman's figure in rope in an edgy and cool way inspired me to create a painting of rope erotic art. Opportunities for sensation touch, painting on women's bodies, and people watching kink performances fueled the magnetic erotic energy, and its rippling impact gave me a heightened creativity and many new resulting ideas. Raw conversations unafraid to reveal primal drive – need -- behind human sexuality ignited personal revelations while adding notches to our cultural evolution.
Changing attitudes
One lively and intellectual conversation I had with a tall and distinguished looking blond woman radiating a dignified elegance in her black pants and matching blouse led to an illuminating observation about the event. First she said she loves to people watch. Then she proceeded to share a book title with me called "The Female Brain" that sheds light on the shift in the way the male brain is becoming more feminine and how science is exploring the evidence behind this realization. Could this be a new start in the evolutionary process – taking into consideration cultural trends – of a willingness and greater openness to accept any type of sexual orientation?
Lasting impressions
Humans are continually evolving. Religion, politics, hunting and gathering (we now hunt at supermarkets or, in some cases, dumpsters), personal and collective sacrifice, farmers, the industrial age, wars, peace seekers, sexual freedom in the 1960's, rock and roll, technology, and so much more, have served to move us forward on a continual expansion of what it means to be human here on earth. We are still evolving. We are still learning. We are still discovering what it means to be free, to love unconditionally, and to live with light and passion. We are still learning who we really are. We are still integrating all the aspects of our being on a mission to wholeness.   
One woman I met at the festival's end said she had many relationships with men and women who were not into the "act of sex." She said she shared this real need for intimacy – for human touch – and then asked to engage with others outside these relationships cold with sexual emptiness. She would leave to find connection and freedom found only through sensual and sexual expression. This is a journey all of us take. Where the journey leads is a result of our choices and how deeply we go within.