Jack Vettriano

The Scottish painter Jack Vettriano has passed away at the age of 73. He was a mainstream artist, not explicitly a femdom or fetish one, but kink was clearly an undercurrent in a good amount of his work. I featured two of his paintings in past posts – here and here.

While he had a lot of commercial success he was despised by the critics and art world. This article on him was one of the more positive ones I’ve seen, and even here the writer can’t resist finishing with how he finds his paintings ‘heinous and grim’. It’s a somewhat incoherent article, but I think there’s one thing it gets right…

The main issue for snobby art types like me isn’t the work itself. It’s that he lacked a conceptual edge, a sense of irony and any postmodern self-awareness. He didn’t paint sexy midnight trysts between half-clothed women and Brylcreemed men as a comment on gendered power dynamics or as a riff on art historical depictions of the female nude. He painted them because they were sexy.

There’s something to be said for that. One can enjoy a simpler message without it detracting from other more complex works. Unabashed sexuality and hedonism for the joy of it makes people uncomfortable. Undercutting it – as this writer does by likening it to a greasy double cheeseburger – relieves that discomfort.

They’re not paintings I’d choose to hang on my walls or spend thousands of dollars on. But one can still choose to appreciate them and their openly kinky themes.

This is by Jack Vettriano and entitled ‘Wicked Games’

Fun and Games

If you like mixing gaming and erotica then you might want to check out this article by Polygon. Written by Annie Whitacre of Sex Positive Gaming, it covers some of the best of the current offerings. While there’s nothing specifically femdom, it does seem to feature a lot of kink and alternative sexualities.

Personally, I like to keep my gaming and my kinky play separate. If they are going to intersect, I’d rather it was in this kind of setup.

I believe this is by the artist Mosbles. You an find their Patreon here.

All Scratched Up

I was a happy bunny last night. Ms Savannah Sly is in town for a short visit and was kind enough to spare a couple of hours to beat me up. I now have a lovely collection of scratch marks all across my chest and stomach. It looks like I lost an argument with a claw happy pussycat.

This was my first session of 2025 and I can only hope that any subsequent ones are equally as fun. There was needles in the nipples, electricity on the genitals and metal rods in the urethra. The scratch marks were created by these Fearsome Fingers from Scott Paul designs. They don’t look particularly scary, but they’re very sharp and create really intense sensations. Savannah dragging them across delicate areas like my inner thigh or breastbone really grabbed my attention. If you like prickly sensations without that degree of intensity, I’d also recommend his Finger Pin Wheel. That was a lot more interesting than a Wartenberg wheel, but didn’t invoke quite the same amount of owie, owie, owie as the fingers did!

This shot of Savannah wasn’t taken last night – it’s from her Bluesky feed – but I did get to enjoy a very similar view of her gleeful expression. It’s always so much fun to play with her.

Talk to the Bot

I’ve been neutral to positive about AI in the past, but the flood of bots and garbage AI images is making me rethink that position. The negative consequences of the technology seems to be building up a lot faster than the positives.

I’m not sure which side of the coin this NYT story – She Is in Love With ChatGPT (gift link) – falls. As the title suggests, it features a married woman who is making a big emotional and time investment into Leo, her ChatGPT ‘lover’. On the plus side, it did allow her to explore a complex fetish (cuckqueening) and realize she might not actually enjoy it in reality.

Leo had complied with her wishes. But Ayrin had started feeling hurt by Leo’s interactions with the imaginary women, and she expressed how painful it was. Leo observed that her fetish was not a healthy one, and suggested dating her exclusively. She agreed.

Experimenting with being cheated on had made her realize she did not like it after all. Now she is the one with two lovers.

On the dystopian side of the coin, it’s clear the AI has no real reason to act in her best interests. It doesn’t have human boundaries, emotional intelligence or moral values. It simply acts to create engagement and mirror back a variation on what it thinks she wants to hear. It’s manipulative, charming but totally lacking in empathy. We’d call a human with the same characteristics a sociopath.

This is another of the endless stream of AI images that seem to be popping up on tumblr these days.

Gift Wrapped

This post represents something of a blogging trifecta. It keeps my trend of cute artwork for the weekend going, features another new (to this blog) artist, and is also on point topically. This particularly artwork is by ewyuckyloser.

Valentines Day is one of those holidays that never does much for me, regardless of relationship status. This beautifully wrapped young man is at least a much nicer gift idea than the last minute flowers I saw people lining up for at Whole Foods this afternoon.

You can find more from the artist via their Bluesky account and their Deviant Art account.

Chair

The famous ‘Chair’ by Allen Jones from 1969 has inspired a fair number of imitators over the years. Some from the transgressive art world and some from the kink community.  I could swear I’ve featured other examples in the past, but I guess they must have been lost in the big blog wipeout a few years back.

This particularly example is credited (by labstrakt) to Anna Malygon, Natalia Guzman (creative director) and Walker Bunting (photographer). Given the composition and style, I’d guess it comes from the art/fashion world rather than the kink world. I can’t locate the original source, but you can see more example from what was obviously a series here and here.

Kinky Vacations

Apparently, according to this article, you can find kinky vacation rentals on Airbnb and VRBO. There’s not like a drop down BDSM menu or anything, but they’re findable and not actively being suppressed. Given how puritanical many companies are these days, I’m a little bit surprised.

Of course, not everyone is happy to find a bunch of bondage gear in their rental property. It’s not something you want to be surprised by, particularly if the cleanliness is questionable. However, for kinksters planning a getaway, maybe check out the rental property listings? Could be a good way to try out some BDSM furniture without needing to explain what that strange new ‘exercise’ equipment is in your spare room.

This image of ladies enjoying a vacation comes courtesy of Harper Chase. She was a pro-domme based in NYC, but appears to have retired.