Would You Display This? Call for Hosts

                                                     Copyright Christopher Chamberlain

My husband is an artist.

Working with a variety of mediums he, draws, paints and illustrates, creates bookcovers, graphic arts, comic strips, artwork for kids' books, paganistic nature scenes and erotica art.

In pursuit of his art, sometimes this means doing things I'd just rather not do (but do them anyways...sure you know the deal). Like waddling through puddles in the pouring rain and torn up streets in search of triple A batteries and attending crowded events. 

We thought this summer (the "we" in that is way more him than I) we would take his art to the festivals and fairs, not just for the chance to sell some artwork but for the promotion and exposure. Something we've been wanting to do for the past couple of years and this time around, the timing just works.

This past weekend, we were at one of these things and was told (about this piece. The one at the top of this blog post. This piece that was one out of about twenty that were on our table), "This is hardcore nudity. Please don't display it, its offensive to children".

 The festivals, are great venues for us to sell artwork, gain exposure and promotion. We know how difficult these events can be. We have a good idea of the amount of work and time and effort that's involved in putting them together.  We get it. We also understand, about protecting the children from the shocking artwork, kind of.
That is to say, we understand what is a huge hit in NYC wouldn't have the same reaction at a family fun event. We get it and adjust what we bring to these fairs and festivals accordingly.
 Before attending such an event, we always provide the requested information.

 In other words, they knew what we were bringing to this particular event and the reaction was...well however you may want to fill in that blank.

For ourselves, we were bemused. And that led to thinking about and searching for venues and places that we could display and show and sell his art without worrying about the shielding of the eyes. Our bemused reaction after this weekend, led to heightened states of amusement. And concluded with us deciding to shorten the list of planned events we'd attend over the summer and focus on the bigger ones.

From our amusement and longing to want to showcase this branch of his art, we came up with the idea for this Not For Victorian Eyes Virtual Art Tour. The internet after all, is a great venue for the varied tastes.

As the artist's wife, I get a lot of questions. In this small way, I can answer, "No", to: 

"Do you have a problem with your husband drawing naked women?"
 Consider this, if he can't draw the human body, how on earth can he draw you the superhero for the charity auction  or the kids educational bookcover ?
 
If you like what "we" are doing, if you like the erotica branch of his artwork and if this incident even mildly offends your sensibilities (you know, what I didn't elaborate on here: the right or wrong of it, censorship, freedom of expression...), please join in.

And rest assured, the artist's wife knows all about it.

Not for Victorian Eyes Virtual Art Tour
Featuring the Erotica Art by Christopher Chamberlain
June 30th to August 1st 2011

Wanted: Hosts for the Not for Victorian Eyes Virtual Art Tour

Ideas for the Hosts:

• The host may pick a piece to showcase on their blog or website, and ask the artist about it.
• The host can interview the artist.
• The host may feature a profile of the artist
  

All hosts who participate will receive an ACEO ORIGINAL by Christopher Chamberlain. 

If interested, please send an email to : manyfacesart@gmail.com with your website or blog, interview questions and if you want to discuss a piece of art with him, please tell what piece or if you want to do something else, let us know that as well. We're open to all kinds of ideas and suggestions.