J’évolue dans le monde des arts plastiques , de l’expression corporelle et dans le milieu alternatif parisien depuis très jeune . J’ai donc exploré diverses techniques et directions : peinture , photographie , dessin , graphisme , video , danse et travail sur le corps.
Depuis ces 15 dernières annnées , j’ai fait des expositions et performances en France et quelques collaborations qui m’on ouvert de nouveaux horizons. Il y a un moment ou j’ai glissé de la peinture et de la representation du corps à la mise en scène directe des corps et des ames à travers la photographie , le corps au sens large comme moyen d’expression.
Il m’est rapidement venu un questionnement sur mon propre érotisme face aux archetypes simplifiés et imposés par la société de consommation. Durant des siècles d’histoire de l’art , les femmes ont été enfermées dans le rôle de sujet de fantasme érotique , mais empechées dans l’expression de leur propre érotisme loin des attentes sociales , ce qui explique le fait que toute une génération actuelle parte dans cette direction à la suite des pionnières du siècle dernier.
Dans la jouissance esthétique et tactile de la matière , j’y trouve une relation au spirituel dans le monde des fantasmes qui ouvre une porte à la fois physique , énergetique , psychologique et mystique . La sensualité comme acte quasi religieux , la sensualité comme prière.
Mes influences profondes dans la démarche et l’esthétique sont clairement celle des suréalistes ( dont certains pionniers qui ont abordé l’érotisme du fétichisme ) Etant de la génération de1976 , j’ai été aussi très influencée par la vague rock punk goth newwave des années 80 et j’ai été jeune ado et jeune adulte dans les années 90 pendant l’emergeance des mouvements technos sauvages. Les attitudes des femmes de la scène rock comme Lydia Lunch par exemple ( parmis beaucoup d’autres ) ont clairement ouvert la porte à ma generation. C’est aussi dans ce monde rock notament gothique et new wave que j’ai decouvert très jeune mes tendances au fetichisme et aux mises en scène BDSM.
Dans la photographie , les artistes comme Robert Mapplethorpe me parlent beaucoup , le fait d’aborder des sujets parfois crus ou qui peuvent paraître provoquant mais dans un style presque academique pour un rendu raffiné , les photographies de sexe ou de fleur y sont representé avec la meme sensualité , ramenées au meme niveau.
En ce qui concerne la littérature , je citerai ‘ L’histoire de l’oeil ‘ de Georges Bataille , ‘incontournable ..Les oeuvres d’Henry Miller m’interessent beaucoup , j’y retrouve cette errance hedoniste , urbaine ou se melent sexualité et philosophie ‘ King kong théorie ‘ de Virginie Despentes est également un de mes livres de chevet , je le considère comme le livre de ma génération en ce qui les femmes et leur sexualité face à la société . Mon autre influence est bien évidement l’érotisme asiatique , en particulier japonais , les classiques comme ‘ L’empire des sens ‘ par exemple , le shibari ( le bondage japonais ) , le coté rituel et très martial dans la mise en scène de l’eros.
Texts extracted from the unpublished collection of poems “Ciénaga”
5 21 seconds they play your name Like a shooting star I count the spaces To lose myself in the water.
6 We are stopped by the claws of the wind It’s time to sleep they tell us we are asleep Like fugitive silhouettes We have gone astray.
7 The angel of the paths leads our light his hands lengthen the stems of the day stretch contours.
8 My cloud brings pieces of time closer I’m gloomy like these worm-eaten plants Someone else will come from the night To collect some forgotten landscape.
9 Unexpectedly I open my eyes towards you I like to hear whispers from the outside line Your eyes open other doors And they stay sheltered from the shade.
10 Since that time I remember you You slowly invade my landscapes Cold voices bring the threads of that web closer They surround the absent body.
11 I will open my eyes once more When the stars dwell in our bodies And a drop slipped through the skin Suspend all reefs high.
12 Violet petals fall successively on us The wind is gone, but the shadow remains Water slides streams into the night And the last fire extinguishes my stars.
Poems extracted from the book “Poemas de sur”
House and Plum IV
Stealth remains attentive to all caresses My kisses keep looking for their route And I remember the first home, the smells tremble with their laughter Your look weighs on the eyelids of the imagination The smells will come to dream of the intimate past So long without looking back Memory takes so long It’s something illusory like the blue roses in the garden The bridge where I whisper a name a silhouette arrives tired to tell me that figure sits in the memories And I can no longer hide in the holes of the old walls but if the shadow is your name I will continue whispering inside the empty space and the walls will see their signs in the passing of things beyond we will continue drawing in the rooms and they will continue to walk through those passages where the smoke today flies calmly.
House and plum V
We remember the fog visits us through the window The green eyes returned to tour our nights And an old walker passed through the house We return to the site of the visits The lamps lulled the traveling sound Only God listens to us on this winter Friday And I whisper to you not to repeat things Our gestures turn off the lights Fall memories unwrap That house creaked in the front room Eyes flickered subject to the crackle A voice speaks words I don’t know them anymore, the voice is barely heard Between the trees you fly to contemplate the past And the tree held by the foreign night We are silent to hear each other in this stillness Sleeping trees glow in the dark They stretch their arms towards the house in the silence The wind returns And we as relic-weary passengers We take care of the necessary gestures Things twinkle distrustful of destiny And only tonight can they blink in regret Because the trees examine our deep voices And no one will be able to descend from the passageway And listen to the unknown song.
Writer born in Viña del Mar, Chile. Professor of language and communication at PUCV, poet and literary critic. In 2012, she published her first book, The Invisible Eyes of the Wind. She has published in renowned Chilean and foreign digital media: Babelia (Spain), Letras de Chile (Chile), Triplov and Athena de Portugal, among others. During the year 2017 she participates in the Xaleshem group with poetic texts for the surrealist anthologies: “Composing the illusion” in honor of Ludwig Zeller and “Full Moon”, in honor of Susana Wald. In 2018, she integrates the feminist anthology IXQUIC released both in Europe and in Latin America. In 2020 she participates reviewing the conversation book “Shuffle poetry, Surrealism in Latin America” by Alfonso Peña (Costa Rica), also writes a poetic prose text for the book “Arcano 16, La torre“, by the same author. Likewise, she participates in the book “120 notes of Eros. Written portraits of surrealist women” by Floriano Martins (Brazilian surrealist poet, writer, visual artist and cultural manager). In this year (2021) she publishes her second poetry book Poética de la erotica, amores y desamores by Marciano editores, Santiago.
Featured art photo Peppermint Patty girl Oil, collage Mitchell Pluto 2022
The He is more poet than me He provokes in me the excitement of lucifer I wish to flee from the three nails of the crucifixion My wrists don’t hurt so much anymore. like sore ankles I don’t limp anymore The sky turns to water in your presence I know how to float in flooded graves mercury nights Enigma of the writer with hair on his face Under the moon Howl with foreign voices
OBEY ME
From afar he looked like a man It was a shadow in the form of a man From afar he looked like a poet It was a form of man with the voice of a poet In the light he looked like an angel In the dark Repugnant smelly I liked Come! Come my love! You will see that the reflection of my water is salty Obey me
MARRIAGE OF THE DEAD
To not blame the men We got married in the presence of a dead man reflection echo We got married in the presence of a dead man With my heart in my hand fevers cramps Friend of my heart drowned in poetry We got married in the presence of a dead man They dug a grave We were put Next to each other in the wet mud The crying comes from the empty graves We got married in the presence of a dead man The earth has forgiven us
INSOMNIA
We look more beautiful in black More beautiful than the widows of our enemies I reversed your death with a love spell I pierced your flesh blood stakes I descended into madness to rescue you Men In angel I returned you You festered like a poem under insomnia nobody’s Geometry geometry of gods We look more beautiful in black More beautiful than the widows of our enemies. crazy pupils Kiss Me! as if you don’t know me impregnate me again and again Throw the stone and hide I will murder our children in the name of love bite me howls
SPECTRAL SILHOUETTE
spectral silhouette I got tangled up in your hair It rains in a city full of leaves yellow autumn I visit you in the asylum where reason is lost I see you insanely talking with the virgin she doesn’t listen to you My joints creak like an old door I dry myself I am your light you tell me Cocoon light when I take you in hugs Under the cold light of fluorescent tubes We are the closest thing to Michelangelo’s Pietá I cleanse your drugged body They have cooked your mouth I give you to drink the rain You have aged more than me One by one I have seen your teeth fall Even so I still consider you handsome my sick poet Smoker Created in the image and likeness of your mother We make a blood pact Crying Of the wall The shadow The smoke from your big hands Touching me You hypnotize the voices The time stops naked I walk in the rain I collect flowers.
The poet Leopoldo María Panero, died last night at 65 years old at the Juan Carlos I Psychiatric Hospital in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, where he lived as a boarder in open regime. Panero will be cremated tomorrow at the San Miguel Funeral Home of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, where his body will be veiled starting at 2:00 p.m. today. The Corpse of the Poet he will remain in the funeral home for a little over 24 hours, until proceed to incinerate him, something that is scheduled for 4:30 p.m. tomorrow. Source: ABC.es Culture, July 7, 2014
CRAZY PUPILS
The most ruthless of all souls She is moved by the song of night crickets The most brutal of all souls Talk to the stars on a waning moon the most despised Sing with the voice of a nightingale stays there hours and hours and hours hearing the wind the most ungrateful soul wash the feet of tramps Heals hand wounds Feed the pigeons in the squares Smile at the children on the street tour the cemetery Read verses about the graves Searching abandoned tombstones Rest in sealed sepulchers. Accompanies the silence that passes forgetting and she gets tired falls off she turns off sleep Until the dandelions touch her fingers She can’t open her tired eyelids crazy’s pupils get bigger hands are filled with oblivion.
LOST LANGUAGE
Speak Write poetry miss the word Language that bewitches the impure in spirit Verses saved from the waters Illegitimate child Where does my tongue come from? stumbles on the palate I inject sounds speeches rumors Where do my eyes come from? Observe the bubbles of the fish mating Fertilize under the water of the river.
MOON WOMAN
Moonlit woman windy sunrise Fall from the placenta to the volcano burn the soul Germinate in root mutate into bird poet’s whisper I belong to the wind to the reflection of the sea
Controversial, transgressive, provocative, direct, loving, desolate This is the poetry of Victoria Morrison in this new book: “Crazy Pupils”. the forty four poems that the collection of poems brings together come from the limits most extreme humans; tenderness and cruelty in hands of the disturbed beauty of some verses that bother and move, as the voice should be, when you are in the center of the tragedy. Love, madness, death, oblivion, govern the order of this collection of poems. In this scheme, the poetry of Victoria Morrison is a way of exhibiting the torture to which existence subjects us just by breathing.
Dante Cajales Meneses Cau Cau, Puchuncavi, Chile, February 2020
Feature art photo Eyes series. Óscar César Mata, Latex and watercolor pencil. Buenos Aires, Argentina.
be you the stray who returns into the mist of our bodies.
Ignition
I wonder if you’re touching the sky now as I extend my sight to these mountains what part of space will be created with your presence? What ocean will I cross to incinerate you slowly?
Prophecy
Your body dissolves things to announce a moan or remote end of the night that no longer hides anything not even a new way of shivering
Estrangement
You look at me as if I were your fetish you touch me when we’re alone I am nothing of that nor the shadow of our own steps.
Secrets
The mirror projects two lovers at the edge of the night the itinerary of its own history is broken They don’t sleep because they know how to distinguish whispers that fly by and saturate the air of people looking through the keyhole and are suddenly reflected in a pool It is not true to say that these bodies look at each other it would be better to sketch the moment when they intersect with the dark but aligned as they were they knew how to possess themselves and stood out against the background of shadows of a white that was dreamed at night and he did not even stop to contemplate the stars but if he looked at himself naked except when she unbuttoned her dress.
Writer born in Viña del Mar, Chile. Professor of language and communication at PUCV, poet and literary critic. In 2012, she published her first book, The Invisible Eyes of the Wind. She has published in renowned Chilean and foreign digital media: Babelia (Spain), Letras de Chile (Chile), Triplov and Athena de Portugal, among others. During the year 2017 she participates in the Xaleshem group with poetic texts for the surrealist anthologies: “Composing the illusion” in honor of Ludwig Zeller and “Full Moon”, in honor of Susana Wald. In 2018, she integrates the feminist anthology IXQUIC released both in Europe and in Latin America. In 2020 she participates reviewing the conversation book “Shuffle poetry, Surrealism in Latin America” by Alfonso Peña (Costa Rica), also writes a poetic prose text for the book “Arcano 16, La torre“, by the same author. Likewise, she participates in the book “120 notes of Eros. Written portraits of surrealist women” by Floriano Martins (Brazilian surrealist poet, writer, visual artist and cultural manager). In this year (2021) she publishes her second poetry book Poética de la erotica, amores y desamores by Marciano editores, Santiago.
Feature art photo Sun Set Women Oil, collage by Mitchell Pluto 2022
Limulus, is my favorite arthropod, it’s the oldest species on the planet.
I’m thinking about sex 24/7. Raging hormonal beach Paradises stretch on infinitely into horny horizons. The sight of beautiful fertility Goddesses is always more pleasant to behold than old men covered with craters of acne scars, or Syphlytic doomsday warthogs with copper sulfate tusks!!
Naked ladies have a storied history in the history of art. From Boucher, Bouguereau, Anders Zorn, Mel Ramos, Eric Fischl, pin up art of Elvgren and Driben….Like Brooke Burke and 10 thousand other Brunettes. Hans Bellmer is a favorite. Independent from art, the naked lady in public viewed by the salivating Voyeur since time immemorial is inspirational.
Hans Bellmer appeals to me because it’s Life itself. What beauties can be viewed spontaneously in the street. It is bizarre and an otherworldly ethereal quality that I like.
written by Richard Gessner
Richard GessneratStudio Montclair, Leach Gallery 641 Bloomfield Avenue Montclair, NJ
Artist and Short Story Writer Richard Gessner
more art and info on Richard Gessner can be found at
Where does the inspiration come from to paint vivacious ‘swollen icons’ or Zaftig female figures?
My inspiration to create these characters comes from beautiful Trauma. I had a sexualized childhood and have very vivid recollections of intense moments that shaped my life and artistic aesthetic. My voluptuous women are inspired by the Latin women I grew up seeing around me and fantasizing about. The male characters are inspired by the feelings I have experienced when I see a powerful woman. The source of my creativity is the power of femininity. I call my male characters SWOLLEN ICONS because I feel that when men are aroused they swell spirituality and physically. The feeling of blood flow from excitement inspired me to express myself and create these unique figures. They are also inspired by a memory of a deformed boy I saw back when I was 7 years old. His image is imprinted in my mind and somehow it pours into my work. One of the strongest memories that have shaped my art happened when I was a pre teen surfing in Miami Beach. While I surfed in small shore break waves a gorgeous tanned Brazilian woman approached me and asked if I could teach her how to surf. When she laid down on my surfboard I looked at her muscular and plump derriere and time seemed to stand still. She was wearing a thong and was flirting with me. She was an older married woman and was just having some fun, but for me it was serious. That memory inspired my inclination for zaftig female figures and bubble butts. Most of my work is highly personal and evolve daily experiences. And the pain and melancholy in my work is due to youthful unrequited love.
There is a strong Freudian id theme in your work have you read any Sigmund Freud? Cal Jung? what are your views on sexuality and art?
Yes, I have read and studied about them. When I graduated high school I wanted to be a psychologist. I did 4 years in college and when I was about to graduate Psych school I had a change of heart and pursued art. In the end I graduated with a major in visual arts and a minor in psychology. They were very influential to my creative process. Because of them and the surrealists I started delving into my memories to create. I loved that they gave importance to the private worlds in our subconscious. I love sexuality and sensuality; some of the greatest works of art have been driving by this primal force. I think sexuality is beautiful and powerful. I don’t see it as a sin but as a gift, the ultimate feeling in the world has to offer us. It’s the source of creativity and life. A perfect example of how the power of sexuality inspired art and helped change the world was Picasso’s “Les demoiselle D’Avognon”. That painting became the face of an art revolution that led to modern art and it was inspired by the women in a brothel. Picasso once said that sex and art are the same, I agree.
There is an infant, a consort often accompanying your female figures, who is he?
That figure is usually a self portrait. He represents the way I feel. When there are more than one of these little figures its usually a statement on society, the male condition. That’s the simple way to talk about them but I feel these characters have several layers and can signify many things, it all depends on the viewer. Sometimes this character is a SWOLLEN ICON and sometimes he can be a HYBRID. The hybrids in my work represent animalistic urges. One of my favorite painters is Bosch and I look to his array of menacing hybrids are inspiration for these thought process. My paintings can symbolize emotions but at the same time can be read as social commentary.
How do you process ideas from the subconscious and find inspiration on a daily basis?
I like to create art through the surrealist practice of automatism. I let the work unfold before me as work without conceptual restraints and flow with the material I am using. I love the initial process of discovery and uncertainty. Sometimes I am inspired by a dream or an experience and choose to try and capture that vision. But most of the time I prefer to work intuitively. I have coined the word SENSUALISM as my art style because it is heavily influence by surrealism and sensuality. I love art history and I feel my work is in constant dialogue with past art.
Were there other writers made a major influence on the way you thought about reality?
I love the works by existential writers the likes of Albert Camus, Hermann Hesse, Oscar Wilde, Kafka, Bukowski and Nabokov. Oscar Wilde’s book “A picture of Dorian Grey’ is forever inspiration for me. He was one of the first artists that showed me that one could create great art by exposing subconscious desires and fears. I also love the book “Narcissus and Goldmund” by Herman Hesse. In this book I love the way Hesse poetically depicts the life and struggles of the visionary artist. Besides loving books I am also a huge film buff. I love all genres. I find inspiration seeing and taking notes while I watch great films. My favorite filmmakers are David Lynch, David Cronenberg and Alejandro Jodorowsky. Some of my favorite all time films are; THE ELEPHAT MAN, AMADEUS, ROCKY, SANTA SANGRE and LEGEND. I also wouldn’t be able to create without music. I love creating while jamming to my favorite bands. I love the energy in heavy metal, punk rock and retro new wave; bands like Audioslave and Metallica keep me stoked while I work.
Favorite artists?
My favorite artists are Hieronymus Bosch, Salvador Dali, Pablo Picasso, Jan van Eyck, Robert crumb, Ingres. If you look carefully you will see their influence in my work. They have heavily informed my art through the years. I have actually seen Their work in person and have been changed by it. I can remember the time my wife and I took a trip to Paris to visit the Louvre museum and I was blown away the art of Jan Van Eyck. I stood in front of one of his oil paintings for an hour, mesmerized and touched by the sheer technical prowess. When I got home from the trip I decide I wanted to paint like him and dedicate my life to the love of color, sensuality and care.
What can you tell us about your spirituality of surfing and staying healthy?
I have been surfing on and off since I was a child. To me surfing is a way to connect spiritually with nature and the higher power. Surfing is so pure and freeing, it nourishes me every time I go for a session. This feeling can be very addicting and dangerous so I have to limit my time in the water or I can get consumed by it and not get work done. I grew up in Miami Beach. I lived very close to the beach and have hung out most of my life there. All of my art is inspired by the culture of abundance and excess I witness on a day to day living here. One of my favorite paintings I have created was inspired by an accident I had surfing. The piece is called Broken Mirror and I painted it while I was recovering from a broken nose. I put all the pain and beauty I felt for life at that moment in that painting. It now hangs in my home as a reminder and it is my prized possession. After that accident I stopped surfing for a few years but I couldn’t stay away for long. Now I can say that my love for surfing is back and is stronger than ever. Surfing has given me some of the most beautiful memories and frightening moments in my life, I learn from it constantly. When I was very young my sister Giuliana bought me my first surfboard, she was the reason I began surfing, I think she believed that surfing would keep me out of trouble and help me find an identity. She was right. When she died on of cancer a few years ago I promised her that I would surf for her. So nowadays I don’t just surf for pleasure but also to keep her memory alive.
JC Bravo
I work primarily with oil paints. It is important for me to achieve a jewel like preciousness in my paintings in order to convey care and importance. I want to give my paintings a monumental and sensual quality that I believe can only be achieved with oil. Also, oil painting gives my work an elegance that balances the sometimes grotesque and fantastical subject matter.
If you would like to know more about me and see more of my work visit my website:
Reading Richard Gessner’s book The Conduit and Other Visionary Tales of Morphing Whimsy was like drawing a tarot card out of a magical deck. Reading it triggered a rare recollection of sensations into a neural pattern of synesthesia. These infrequent and unusual bits of writing guides the reader into a dream time, a metamorphosis that operates in harmony while under the influence of an autoscopic hallucination. An illusion of observing selves. There is a hypnagogic arrangement that dissolves once you fully notice your in a dream but with Gessner’s work the afterimage stays for a long visit. It doesn’t evaporate. I enjoy the metaphorical compounds in Gessner’s visual work, it’s an erotic and tantric iconography. Gessner builds a unique mythology. His graphic representation of aquatic fantasies are arranged in the formula of deep unexposed thought waves, waves we glide on in abbreviated gestures.
Richard Gessner is a Left-handed, self taught Visionary writer and artist. In the visual work he often packs dense interconnected imagery into tight spaces.
“I am a left-handed, self taught Artist. I pack dense, interconnected imagery into small spaces. I have an ongoing epic series of the Surf Goddess and the Strongmann that evokes a timeless world of iconic Man & Woman acting out romantic flirtatious dances with the mercurial forces of nature.”
Surf Goddesses, Strongmenn, Sirens, Vixens and other Burlesqueness
Offshore Drilling 18in X 24in color pencil pilot penQueen of Hearts Surf Goddess and Strongmann 18in X 24in Mixed Media
The Strongmann is semiaquatic, cerulean blue, with flipper feet and king crab like arms and hands, expressing the raw forces of the instinctual Freudian Id. He shifts from heroic to rapacious, from crude to chivalrous in a moment’s notice. Sometimes he’s an alpha at the top of the food chain, only to be usurped by rubber ducks or Sirens he romantically courts in the waves of an endless sea.
Strongmann & Surf Goddess 2021 Acrylic on canvasAce of Spades Surf Goddess 18inx24in watercolor, gauche, color pencil
Horseshoe Crab Telson Quintuplets
Fire Water Funnel Sirens 18in X 24in water color color pencil penScorpion Umbilicus Limulus Twins 18in X 24in water color, gauche, color pencil
The Matadors Reprieve 18in X 24in water color color pencil pilot pen.
Back Bristle Elixir IBack Bristle Elixir II
Table Etiquette
4 a.m. Drawings
Omniscient Left Hand 4 a.m. drawingLimulus Vortex shower. 4 a.m. drawingManta Ray Hatchling Dance 4 a.m.DrawingJellyfish Mirror Ascension 4 a.m. Drawing
Female Nudes
The Fool
A fool, fat sluggish and smug, was turned into a bowling ball by a gang of husky drooling village idiots.
With pontifical glee, the fool had waddled onto the idiots’ grassy flatland turf, making the fateful mistake of underestimating their strength and ability.
The fool felt superior to the idiots, and feared not the clumsy thrusts of their silly toy swords slicing off his blubbery arms and legs becoming an instant set of bowling pins…
Read more from the online journal of arts and letters Sein und Werden
Gessner’s speculative fantasy fiction has been published in literary magazines since the 1980’s. He clarifies his drawings and paintings do not illustrate his stories.
The Conduit and Other Visionary Tales of Morphing WhimsyPaperback
The Conduit and Other Visionary Tales of Morphing WhimsyAudible
Mitchell Pluto 