The Seattle Erotic Art Festival encourages you to not only view art, but to embody art through conversation, education, and action. Over the course of the weekend, we’ll offer numerous conversations, art tours, and lectures on a range of topics related to art, sexuality, identity, and/or eroticism. Take a gander at our options; all of these wonderful experiences are included in the price of your festival ticket.
SEAF 2021 art tours are led by carefully selected artists and art enthusiasts. Go on a journey throughout the festival, viewing art through their personal “lens”. By the time you’ve completed your tour, you’ll find that with erotic art, there’s more than meets the eye. Learn more about our art tours below. Then take a look at our Festival Schedule to plan out your itinerary. Note: most tours start at the Art Docent Lounge, next to the Red Light Wall.
Friday, October 29th
6:30pm – Art By Women For Women with Skitty
Skitty is a lifelong educator, now a full time volunteer, splitting her time between several Seattle nonprofits. She loves to talk about art and all things sex positive. Join her in a discussion centered on women who create erotic art for women.
7:00pm – The Art of BunnyRaunch
This kind of work can reach way back into our lives and minds, and that so many times first impressions of work may not be even remotely what the artist intended. Join BunnyRaunch to learn the stories behind her art selected to be in the exhibition.
“I began drawing BunnyRaunch as a way to reframe an emotionally traumatic event in my childhood that altered my sexual development and confidence for years to come. It evolved into a fun yet profound way of exploring my sexual self, my desires, kinks and questions in a way that allows me to be fully honest yet somewhat anonymous.”
7:30pm – Consent and Art with Sar Surmick
Art invites us in. It engages our senses and lures our minds. Is this dance between the artist and the viewer consensual? Does the subject matter? The people (or other imagery) portrayed? Join us as we discuss these topics and more.
Sar Surmick is director of the Consent Academy, a long time consent educator, and also works as a marriage and family therapist. When it comes to both consent and art, they enjoy nothing more than a good conversation around nuance and complexity.
8:30pm – Portrait of America by Thomas Hammel
Portrait of America is a celebration of diversity, tolerance, and acceptance. The installation comprises images of people of different ethnicity, color, fitness, size, shape, lifestyle, and age. A single image is a frank portrait of a particular person. The collection is a Portrait of America. This book accompanies the accepted Portrait of America installation.
Thomas Hammel: “My work is Nudes. Frequently abstract, often formal, sometimes whimsical, and occasionally political. Not obscured, coy, demure, or reserved, but direct, frank, forthright, and unambiguously nude.”
9:30pm – The Art of Nora Rachel
Nora Rachel is a non-binary femme & queer visual artist residing primarily in Los Angeles, California, but splitting time with Anchorage, Alaska. They create visual art, inspired by queer camp, kink & leather culture, femme identity, and vintage kitsch. Her work plays with juxtapositions: darkly sexual, yet sweet enough to make your teeth ache. Nora is excited to share the stories of their work with you, as well as their thoughts about some of the other works in the festival.
Saturday, October 30th
1:00pm – Fantasy Erotique with Kim Holden
The medium of erotic writing is an opportunity to discover your deepest desires. Fantasy is what can arise when the mind is free of judgement, shame and opinion. Fantasy helps to: Build brain maps; Integrates neural networks; Expand sensual response to the environment; Dispel shame of sexual desires; Connect brain and body to pleasure.
We can listen, imagine, and learn about our own sexuality from another’s story. Sometimes, it is a big turn on! Sometimes, it’s a new idea to consider. Sometimes, another person’s story can help you know a define a no. This is really perfect, safe and can be useful information. This can also be a healing activity, helping others learn the power of a yes and no, consent and agreement. Fantasy can always stay in the imagined world.
This session is presented as an education workshop, using erotic fantasy and storytelling as a portal to see what turns us on, what motivates us and what can even help us heal. All of this is possible when a safe container is created for discovering and sharing what lies just under the surface of our tangible language.
Kim Holden produces and hosts Erotic Tales, a curated program of adult imagination shared through tales of fantasy.
3:00pm – Women Artists Celebrating the Feminine with Skitty
Skitty is a lifelong educator, now a full time volunteer, splitting her time between several Seattle nonprofits. She loves to talk about art and all things sex positive. Join her in a discussion centered on “Female Artists Celebrating the Feminine”.Naughty Letters 101
3:00pm – Naughty Letters 101 with Clea Salar
There’s something slightly intimidating about writing a naughty letter. It’s like pillow talk, but there’s a record of it forever. At the same time, there’s also something very exciting about it. It’s a fantastic tease, a romantic gesture, and can be very seductive. Anthology author and SEAF alumni, Clea Salar, will take you on a crash course through the art of writing flirty, sensuous, and absolutely filthy letters. This class will cover everything from determining what mood you’re wanting to set to picking your favorite euphemisms, and making sure to avoid unsexy typos and word confusion
Clea Salar is a freelance writer, novelist (she can say that now, there’s a novel!), enormous geek, and general sassy pants. She has a BA in Professional and Creative Writing from CWU, and is currently a Master’s Candidate for an MFA in Creative Writing. She also doesn’t necessarily think any of this matters for writing naughy letters, but understands that when you’re teaching a class it’s nice to have credentials. She also wrote this class description, and thinks she’s funny.
4:00pm – Writer’s Wanderlust
Ekphrastic poetry has come to be defined as poems written about works of art. Our literary artists and invited poets have viewed the selected SEAF art and created short fiction and poetry in response to the art. Enjoy an art tour where the visual and the literary are combined. (Starts at the Literary Lair.)
4:00pm – The Fiber Art of T. Erin
T. Erin is a multimodal nonbinary artist with a particular panache for fiber arts. Art is a lifeline for them and a joy even when things are dark. Hear the story behind their art and thoughts about the fiber arts in general.
6:30pm – Writer’s Wanderlust
Ekphrastic poetry has come to be defined as poems written about works of art. Our literary artists and invited poets have viewed the selected SEAF ar and created short fictiton and poetry in response to the art. Enjoy an art tour where the visual and the literary are combined. (Starts at the Literary Lair.)
7:00pm – The Art of October Joe
October Joe is a Queer artist and illustrator in Seattle. His work aims to celebrate queer physicality and eroticism by way of bright colors and bold compositions. Join Joe for a tour of his art and other artists’ pieces in the exhibition.
7:30pm – Pheromones with Lee Worthy
Lee has a lot to say about erotic art and he wasn’t to talk to you about pheromones.
“There is only skin. Everything else is drag. The body is the most basic form of communication. It is our most primal method through which we interact with the world. Through light and shadow, I use the human form to craft tales of both fantasy and truth. I celebrate the male form; both its aesthetic and variety. I hope to further the discussion of masculine beauty. Ultimately, each piece is an expression of myself; my desires and perspective, seeking a dialogue. I have been photographing the male form for over a decade and I have been fortunate to be a repeat artist in SEAF and former juror.”
8:30pm – Micah Ray aka skidrowcrypto
Join Micah, a SEAF2021 visual art juror, for a discussion to find an answer to the question, “What makes art erotic?”
Photographer, filmmaker, and visual artist skidrowcrypto (he/him/Hers) wants to normalize nudity, legalize sex work and promote an appreciation for every human body as a unique work of art. His photography is encoded with open source neural network algorithms to synthesize the visual texture of my hand-painted brush strokes. After some effects editing and moviemaking techniques, my code paintings are polymerized on artist canvas or fine art watercolor paper using pigment-based, UV-cured ink.