The Borgia family dominated Renaissance Italy, and has sometimes been described as Italy’s original crime syndicate. Much maligned for their misuse of power, the Borgias are now being reassessed in our age of more secular power politics. Were Alfons (Pope Callixtus III), Rodrigo (Pope Alexander VI), Cesare and Lucrezia dastardly characters, or stereotyped as Machiavellian? Were the Borgia popes abjectly sinful, or merely worldlier than was good for their reputations? Was Lucrezia Borgia one of history’s great vixens or her powerful family’s pawn? Were the Borgias simply victims of early biographers intent on character assassination due to gender politics, or a poor understanding of how political power must always be used? What are the parallels between the abuse of power in state and religion then and now? Sardax started his illustration career drawing fairly conventional erotica, but by the late 1990s was firmly established as a femdom artist, working for publications including The Governess and the American fetishist magazine Leg Show. Commissions from Japanese magazines also took him down the path of oriental femdom, and one of his inspirations is the Japanese femdom artist Namio Harukawa. Once Monthly, a typical Sardax image from the early 90s over a period of time, and that the project evolved from one-off prints into an open-ended group with a common format. These drawings are not framed and can easily be delivered within the UK, to Europe, the USA, and to many International Destinations, by fully insured post.

In a career spanning more than four decades, the London-based artist Sardax has earned a well-deserved reputation as one of the world’s best-known contemporary illustrators of what has become known as femdom, short for female dominance. Though the term was only first recorded in 1986, the concept and practice are as old as human imagination, where mistresses, madams and dominatrixes are a constant theme in erotic literature and illustration. On Saturday at 2pm John will be exploring the significance and importance of transgressive art, from sado-masochism and the relationship of pain and sex, all the way to the contentious issue of children and sex. With examples from the illustrators of de Sade and Sacher-Masoch, to artists today who are exploring the boundaries of what is ‘acceptable’, this presentation explores why art is such an important medium for the examination of the dark side of the world of eroticism. After all, if imagination isn’t allowed free rein in art it will tend to find more dangerous channels of expression.

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Reflecting on the commercial world of erotic films in the light of these realisations, I can now see that whenever something becomes a lucrative industry it automatically starts imposing a formula and then the creativity and enjoyment goes out of it. The whole business becomes a sort of factory, churning out more of the same. Besides, I was being naive to imagine that anything involving real sex could possibly be an art form. We are making impossible demands on actors, expecting them to be convincing in a role at the same time as ‘performing’ sex for real. This is a misuse of the sex drive, and it goes against the natural inclinations of most human beings, so they are bound to feel used over time. I recall that hilarious scene in Woody Allen’s film ‘Sleeper’, where Diane Keaton invites him into the Orgasmatron to ‘perform’ sex with her. What could be more off-putting? in which he emphasizes and repeats the words “very hard,” perhaps with the intention of increasing the eroticism of the piece. How erotic, or not, the experience may be, though, is of course entirely down to the individual participant. in which Klein painted naked women with his distinctive International Klein Blue paint and made imprints of their bodies on large sheets of paper. Michel Siméon is one of the many talented illustrators active in the 1950s and 60s about whom we know almost nothing beyond the legacy of their work. We assume that he was based in Paris, as he regularly worked for mainstream Paris-based publishers including Gallimard and Le Livre de Poche, and his output included many well-known classics.

How has getting older and becoming more mature influenced your thoughts about what older people can usefully learn and experiment with in the area of intimacy and the life erotic? I wanted to create new Bodyscapes, focus more on the feminine, and have a closer look at nature. I began to study colour therapy, and extend my knowledge of Tarot symbolism. This opened up a whole new area of research into spirituality and esoteric subjects, and I found a limitless supply of inspiration there, which may sound surprising but it is not as incompatible as it might seem. To me these are all a natural extension of the same subject – what is the human experience all about? What is the powerful force that flows through all living things? ’The Pathway of the Lands’ Tarot card I’ve been through some rough times with my exploration, but in my early forties I came to accept Kimberly for who she is. Her outward journey began in late 2000 in Sydney, where she lived for five months 24/7 as woman. It’s a shame I came out so late in life, spending much of it in the closet. I knew I could pass well, but as I got closer to that moment of revelation I would fall into the grips of a purge, only to start anew months later. There will always be people who say that there’s no real difference between erotica and pornography, and that both are equally bad (or good). We’re not going to get into that argument, at least not beyond reminding ourselves that ‘erotica’ comes from the Greek word ‘eros’, sensual love, and ‘pornography’ also comes from Greek, meaning ‘depictions of prostitutes’. This does suggest an important difference, porn generally (though by no means always and inevitably) involving a male-over-female power relationship with some sort of commercial transaction involved. If you would like to read our thoughts about porn and why we believe honesterotica has such an important role to play, you can find them here. honesterotica and you Yes, my views have changed quite a bit since the demise of Februs. Suddenly the pressure was off, and I could start to review my attitudes. During the exciting and very active years of the eighties and nineties I had been under the impression that, if men and women could free themselves from taboos, they could take their pleasure in the same way. But now I think that women, on the whole, because of the way we are made, do experience sex in a way that is more linked to the emotions than men – not all men, of course. ‘Kama Sutra’Purely for myself, I have chosen to paint women in an almost mythical setting – sometimes floating in the air, as I sometimes do in dreams. Trees have always turned me on, as I think has been reflected in a lot of my work to date. Any excuse and I bring a tree into the scene! More recently I have started to paint portraits of actual trees in my area. Some of the older specimens have a powerful presence, and I try to show my personal connection with them as well as revealing their radiance and majesty. Maybe a steamy story with minimal touch gets you going. Maybe a lot of touch with minimal reading gets you going. Maybe the amounts are equal.