THE VENUS OF MANSION HOUSE

This is an image of Venus.

This, for me, exhibits all the elements of eroticism that I require.

It is androgynous.

Venus is youthful, alive.

Her body is decadent, her flesh is in abundance. Her creation was so lavish that she has more than one set of eyes, nose, face, collar bones, shoulders, ears.

Venus came from me at a time of great tension. My body had been violated at the highest degree by the hands of men, and that caused me to vomit something divine.

Venus is an Ascension.

Venus reinforces my belief in myself.

Venus is my mother.

I am Eros.

SERIES: AMOURENZYKIE

Your paper skin is 
Too frail to carry that 
Heavy heart of lead.

I feel you in my 
Veins, turning my blood to ink. 
Write me into you.

Your hands are like wicks, 
Candlelit suppers and your 
Wax flesh sliding off.

I don’t want palm to 
Palm (Holy Palmer’s Kiss) I 
Want to be Godfucked.

My lungs clutched in your 
Iron fist, Venus on a 
Serrated fish hook. 

Do you ever think about death?

Sometimes.

Have you ever wondered how you’re going to go?

Yeah, i hope it’s slow.

Why?

So that I know when to let go.

I hope we die together. Holding hands.

Hm.

We could go out in a blaze of glory, jump off the Eifel Tower or something.

Or track mark infections.

I don’t care how we die, as long as we’re together.

(I hope you die first. I want to strip the flesh from your bones. I want to drink your blood and choke on your fingers. I want to vomit into your empty ribcage and wear your wicked heart as a crown. I want to pull out every single one of your teeth, little pieces of white marble, and grind them to dust. I want to feel your eyes cold in the palms of my hands, your eyelashes caught under my fingernails. I want to feel your last breath in my mouth, my tongue pressed against the back of your convulsing throat. I want to feel your cold slick blood on my face. I want to feel you transcend your body. Transcend. Transcend. Elevate.)

SERIES: The Mysteries of Love (Pretend it's)

You're perfect to me

I'll love them endlessly

Secrets that I keep

I'm here for you

Made just for me

SELF PORTRAITS

The Rosy Christo

Charlie Dagwell's Arse

Queen of Wembley Hill

Blue Icarus

The Green Queen

The King of Wembley Hill

Seraphim

The Black Queen

19

The White Queen

ROSE BUDS

Opening rose buds
with my tongue, soft flesh yields
to cum drenched petals. 

Process: IMAGE DEGRADATION

Shot digitally on a high ISO.

Low quality.

Grainy.

Digitally shot on the computer screen.

Low fi, degraded image.

Feels more illicit.

HARRY HAMLIN IN MY HEART

Rose bud sunlight shines

On Harry Hamlin in my

Heart. Petals and Ice.

Inspiration: HERCULES AND XENA

I also loved the Greek Mythology based television series Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and Xena: Warrior Princess.

I was attracted to Hercules initially for the mythological adventures and then started to enjoy the strong female characters he was constantly presented with. Amazon warriors, goddesses, the all powerful Hera

Hercules: The Legendary Journeys is a television series, filmed in New Zealand and the United States. It was produced from 1995, and was very loosely based on the tales of the classical Greek culture hero Heracles (Hercules was his Roman analogue). It ran for six seasons, producing action figures and other memorabilia as it became one of the highest rated syndicated television shows in the world at that time. It also gained a cult following along with its spin-off, Xena: Warrior Princess.

It was preceded by several TV movies with the same major characters in 1994 as part of Universal Television's Action Pack: in order, Hercules and the Amazon Women, Hercules and the Lost Kingdom, Hercules and the Circle of Fire, Hercules in the Underworld, and Hercules in the Maze of the Minotaur, the last of which served mostly as a "clip show" of the previous movies as a lead up to the series.

Xena: Warrior Princess is an American–New Zealand supernatural fantasy adventure series that aired in syndication from September 4, 1995 until June 18, 2001.

The series was created in 1995 by writer-director-producer Robert Tapert under his production tag, Renaissance Pictures with later executive producers being R. J. Stewart (who developed the series along with Tapert) and Sam Raimi. The series narrative follows Xena (played by Lucy Lawless), a warrior in a quest to seek redemption for her past sins as a ruthless warlord by using her formidable fighting skills to help people. Xena is accompanied by Gabrielle (played by Renee O'Connor), who during the series changes from a simple farm girl into an Amazon warrior and Xena's comrade-in-arms; her initial naïveté helps to balance Xena and assists her in recognizing and pursuing the "greater good".

The show is a spin-off of the television series Hercules: The Legendary Journeys; the saga began with three episodes in Hercules where Xena was a recurring character originally scheduled to die in her third appearance. Aware that the character of Xena had been very successful among the public, the producers of the series decided to create a spin-off series based on her adventures. Xena was a successful show which has aired in more than 108 countries around the world since 1998. In 2004 and 2007, it was ranked #9 and #10 on TV Guide's Top Cult Shows Ever and the title character was ranked #100 on Bravo's 100 Greatest TV Characters. Xena's success has led to hundreds of tie-in products, including, comics, books, video games and conventions, realized annually since 1998 in Pasadena, California and London.

The series has received a strong cult following, attention in fandom, parody, and academia, and has influenced the direction of other television series

I was heart-broken when I found out that Lucy Lawless was in fact blonde and Australian.

I was also heart-broken when I recently stumbled across the final episode of Xena on the Horror channel a few months ago. I knew that Xena and Gabrielle travelled away from Greece and dabbled in Norse mythology, but in the last series they go back to Greece under control of the Romans. In the final episode, the Romans capture our favourite duo, torture them and then crucify them. Roll credits. Earth shattering.

Inspiration: CLASH OF THE TITANS

As a child I had a prolific knowledge of Greek mythology. I was completely absorbed with the Gods and Goddesses, the heroes, the kings and queens. I was always preoccupied with the strong feminine icons within these stories. Aphrodite was my favourite Goddess because she was beautiful. I believed that Love was an all consuming, all powerful force, stronger than greed or sadness, and so to me she was the most powerful entity in the world.

Her son Eros I believed was reincarnated within myself. I believed that I was Eros in his human form. I had prints of cherubs in my bedroom that I identified with. Even from birth I believed I was ethereal.

My love of Greek mythology prompted me to absorb any film or television series related to it that crossed my path. One of my favourite film as a child was Clash of the Titans from 1981, which we had on another home recorded cassette. I preferred this to many others because of the strong, powerful female pressence within the plot.

It starts with Danae and Perseus being cast into the sea be her tyrannical father. This angers the Gods, and his kingdom is destroyed. Danae is not harmed by the storm. Mother is safety, Mother is strong. The prime villain of the piece is Medusa, a woman cursed by the Gods for daring to love the wrong person. She made love in the temple of Aphrodite and was transfigured into a gorgon (according to this version), an indescribably powerful adversary for the demi-god hero. The Olympians shown were mainly female; Hera, Athena, Maggie Smith as the angry Thetis, and an almost mute, yet nevertheless mesmerising Ursula Andress as Aphrodite.

Ursula Andress was beyond glamorous in this film, looking much the same as she had in Dr No, the James Bond debut, saying all of her two lines with great gravity. I have also since learned that during the film she fell in love with the young attractive star Harry Hamlin and the two had a child together.

Harry Hamlin was another early contender for my heart. He was so beautiful, so masculine, yet with such a sensual mouth and delicate curls. He has always been in the back of my mind when looking to cast male models.

Another element of the film which captivated me was Judi Bowker in the role of Princess Andromeda. She is a beautiful girl whom Perseus saves many times from various fiends. Despite playing the damsel in distress role, she has an air of regal dignity about her and seems powerful despite her vulnerability. At the end of the film, she is to be sacrificed to the sea monster and has to go through a cleansing ritual which involves bathing in milk. I now see this as a late 70s/early 80s way of getting more flesh in the film, but as a child it seemed to be the most magical thing ever.

I was so taken in by the last scene where she was chained to the rock that for months I would draw nothing but beautiful girls chained to things, awaiting their doom. This later morphed into Joan of Arc figures being burned at the stake.

Inspiration: LUMIKUNNINGATAR

I have been able to pinpoint the first person that I fell in love with.

As a child, my parents were amongst some of the first on our street to get an early form of cable television, which gave us over 50 different television channels including several bizarre european ones. Whilst my friends were watching things like The Simpsons, or Johnny Quest, I was watching really odd french children's films and The Moomins in the original Finnish without any subtitles. It seemed that European kids shows were far more sinister than english or american ones.

My parents recorded a film of what I assume was the Finnish channel we had in about 1992, which has since become perhaps my favourite film of all time. It was a really bizarre adaptation of Hans Christian Anderson's The Snow Queen, featuring the actress Satu Silvo. It had been dubbed badly into English, so it had these incredible scenes with bavarian castles and child royalty all with these surreal 'cute' american children's voices. It was just so odd.

Watching it in recent years feels strange, because I can see that this film was a huge influence on all my visual language and preferences. Powerful women with huge hair and intense lighting, crowns made from twigs and garlands, strange degrees of undressed young people, strange haircuts and plenty of flowing white fabric.

It has taken me a long time to identify this film, as the home recording I have starts after the title sequence, but last year I verified that it was in fact called LUMIKUNNINGATAR, released in 1986.

There was also this incredibly weird scene which perhaps affected me in later life. The stolen boy has to retrieve THE GREEN STONE to put in THE CROWN OF DARKNESS but to do this, he must fight off a savage polar bear. Now, I remember watching this as a child, and seeing a young boy fight a giant bear, but watching it now is a very different story. The polar bear is actually played by a tall, very muscular male dancer wearing what can only be described as a white thong and a polar bear mask. The bear knocks away the boy's sword, so they have to fight hand to hand. So basically, there is this 12 year old boy in leather trousers, studded leather shoulder pads and armlets with lots of studded leather strapping (to show that he's been possessed by evil) wrestling with an almost nude man in a Polar bear mask before finally slicing off it's head and retrieving THE GREEN STONE.

This film is accountable for almost all visual style that I have come to adopt. It has had as big an impact on me as religious art has.