I am really excited to announce that the Okanagan Erotic Art Show will go ahead in 2010. Jeff and Decoa Harder, partners in Ex Nihilo Vineyards are also art lovers – from their website: “On their first holiday together to Napa Valley and the Bay area, Jeff and Decoa came across the sculpture of Ex Nihilo at an art gallery in San Francisco. They immediately fell in love with the carving of Ex Nihilo and its translation, a Latin word meaning ‘out of nothing.’ Frederick Hart’s original Ex Nihilo, depicting creation, adorns the west façade of the Washington National Cathedral in Washington, DC.” The winery itself is beautiful, there are pics on their website. The show will be in the Tasting Room and the Barrel Room and a few events are also lined up to spice things up during the show. We hope one more partnership, to be announced, will be very exciting and relevant to the idea of sensuality and eroticism.

Show dates will be October 14th to November 9th, just after Winefest. Deadline for submissions will be September 25th. The Call to Artists will be coming out today so stay tuned!

The jury is undergoing the process of selecting the artworks for the 2010 Okanagan Erotic Art Show. This year I can tell you that the artworks submitted were across the spectrum from drawing to painting to photography to digital to sculpture to tattoos and installation and more! Quite exciting, and the artists themselves range from across Canada, from Ontario to the majority of artists in the Okanagan. I think this is a good thing, a good move, having works from across the country. The show will be bringing some of the outside world to the Okanagan, and hopefully, these artists will also get to know each other – who knows where these connections might lead! There may be some thought to taking the show out of the Okanagan eventually as well, but more on that later as plans and ideas develop and gel. I will be continuing this trend for next year, (opening the show to Canada and the US) so if you want to get on the email list, send me a note.

This year, we had more artists submitting who were new to the show.  I am always glad and excited to see people get involved and push their boundaries…. little by little boundaries grow, and we all benefit from both creating and view. This year’s show incorporates more of an edginess, more imagination, more thought and more play with the idea of what is erotic. I think we are going in the right direction for this to happen.

While I am waiting for the entire jury to come back, I am going to pursue some other avenues for our Okanagan Erotic Show – you know me, I don’t sleep (well I do actually, but shhhh don’t tell anyone, it’ll ruin my image). Always on the go for bigger and better – I am all for empowerment of the artist, and the artist self. While we live “here”, we are in the age where we really live in the the “world”, and anything is possible.

Thank you to all the artists who were courageous in creating and submitting their work. This has not gone unnoticed and I hope you will continue to push again next year. Art is the expression of self, and by that expression, we claim our birthright and our entitlement to be who we are.

I will see you all soon in the blog!

Julia Trops

I met with Natasha this week to finalize some things about the Xtream Fantasy Sex Show and the Okanagan Erotic Art Show. I can tell you that the space we are given is very generous – our art gallery will be in a 16′x48′ and it will be near the back right hand side of the curling rink. The whole show itself  will be in the curling rink portion of the Curling Club, and I really like how she has it set up. Depending on how things go, we may have the drawing session nearby, or if our space expands a small amount, the drawing sessions will be part of the gallery space. Either way, the works will be presented in a cohesive way.

For those of you who are not familiar with what will be happening that weekend, there will be a main stage which will feature performers, such as Poi and Belly Dancing, as well as fashion shows, and I hope a demo on pole dancing. I would love to see that, and even learn how to do it. Apparently that is a killer workout and tones muscles like nothing else! Walking around the show will be themed masquerade type entertainers, masks, some stilt walkers, lingerie vendors, toy vendors, I wish I could put everything in this post, but suffice to say, I think it will keep things very interesting. There will be tattoo artists, hopefully henna artists, photographers, and I think Natasha is still looking for a yoga practitioner, and a few other presenter type people. A list of vendors is being updated fairly consistently on the Xtream Events Facebook page, so please check that out, and join the group. If you haven’t joined the Facebook Okanagan Erotic Art Show group, please do that too, while you are over that way.

Our jurors have been picked, and the jurying will take place around the beginning of April, with artists notified around April 5th. I will be sending you all emails with the results. This year, with the focus on wholistic sensuality, I have chosen two people with backgrounds in art, yes, but they also are specialists in other fields to do with our human form. Daneen is a nutritionist, and she feels very strongly that the food we put in our body not only impacts on our physical form, but also on our mental and emotional bodies. Sharon has recently come to Kelowna from Winnipeg, where she served on the Arts Council, and she has a strong connection to the spiritual aspect of our human existence. I have decided this year that I will not submit any artwork, but will serve as jury member insteadl.  I am sure most of you know my credentials so I don’t need to go on and on. If you don’t know about me, then feel free to visit my webpage and explore it.

At the Fantasy show, there will be specialty events which will be draped off from direct public view – and will require a conscious choice to enter to visit. Some of these specialty events are not expected in the mainstream but they are valid parts of some people’s personal sensual expression. The one thing that I can say about this Xtream Fantasy Sex Show is that, for many, they will have the opportunity to view or ask questions about activities that they would not otherwise have. The show itself is in a safe environment, with open minded people presenting, and I hope, open minded people visiting and learning.

There will be a focus on advertising the show on the radio (K96.3, Power 104, Q103, and Sun FM), for the first few weeks will be for any vendors who have not yet heard about the show and the remainder of the time will be the actual show itself. I am told the Erotic Art Show will also be specifically mentioned, which I think is very generous of Natasha. Since the beginning, I’ve been working with Natasha when and where I could to try to help make the Fantasy show a success, and as you all know, I’m a big believer that the more we all work together, the better our events will be. If you feel the same, and have connections that you think would be interested in being at the Fantasy Show, please have them contact Natasha at xtreamevents@shaw.ca.  Tickets are available at the door $15. Listen to the radio stations to find out how to win two free tickets.

The Okanagan Erotic Art Show will definitely push the boundaries this year – I have not looked at the submissions so far, but it is not even the deadline yet, and they are coming in steadily. Because the show is open to all across Canada and the US, I hope that the diversity will make for some interesting viewpoints and conversation. The deadline is March 30th, but you can do the entire submission online if you wish, I have tried to make it as artist friendly as possible. If you have any questions about the show this year, please do not hesitate to contact me either through the “info” email address, or using the contact form on the website.