So this past Tuesday was our last Keyhole Session of the season and it was a pretty fantastic night. Not that that means we’re going to be totally absent over the summer. In August, there’s talk of doing another Girls on Film session, seeing as how the first one was so successful. Nothing’s confirmed yet, but once it is I’ll be posting about it here & elsewhere.
Before that happens, however, we have this: SneakPeek. From July 8th to July 13th we’ll be showing off some of the best artwork that’s come out of the past 55 Keyhole Sessions at the Gladstone Art Bar, here in Toronto. Click through to find more information about both the exhibition and our Gala opening on July 10th. There’s a chance, space & time allowing, that I’ll be doing a bit of a demo at the opening. Hopefully I can find myself a little corner I can tie in…

The ToroGRUE 2 happened. After a lively meet & greet Friday night, Saturday was a day full of amazing discussions from a mix of brilliant minds. Sunday, lots of pancakes happened, made by Men in Kilts, followed by a little bit more GRUEing. I don’t think any of us were expecting the Sunday session to continue quite as it did, but I for one loved it. Graydancer has a post up about his impressions of this GRUE – the second in Toronto, and certainly not the last – as well as what I think might be the best picture of him and I I’ve seen to date:

Men In Kilts With Kitchen Implements

Our first ever Girls on Film Keyhole Session happened. Lots of fantastic shots came out of that night. A sure success, and one we’ll for sure be repeating. I had a LOT of fun, tying for Keyhole in a way I don’t often get a chance to. Fast, and for restraint as opposed to purely aesthetics. A pretty complete collection of shots from that night can be found here One of my favourite shots of the evening, below, was taken by VoulaVous and I think is simply lovely.

The following week The Keyhole Sessions and Art Battle Toronto teamed up for Art Battle 6. The final Battle of that night was two artists painting two of our models. I tied in front of the Art Battle crowd… not sure what they were expecting but they were certainly paying attention. Sonya shot a video of me tying, which is good as it shows the crowd around us but I still find it very strange watching myself tie on video.

As a result of my work with The Keyhole Sessions I’ve been invited to give a workshop on Tying the Female Form as part of Kinky4Play. That’s happening mid-August. I’ll post more details as they come up.

I discovered a new online artist (thanks to a blog post by Violet Blue) whose work I admire and am following with great interest. Ben Newman keeps a blog at bennewmanart.blogspot.com and is very much worth a look. Here’s a sample piece of his. (I am such a fan of the red rope in this.)

"Handle with Care" by Ben Newman

Part of the Sunday session at the GRUE was a discussion I led (after making many pancakes and watching Graydancer wrassle with my partner A.) on Philosophies of Service. I’m expanding that with more notes and thoughts, with the idea of eventually turning it into a class. Yes, I’d like to get on that touring circuit. But I don’t feel any great need to get on that circuit as a rope educator. At least, not at this moment. Who knows, that may change with time.

From Beautiful and Depraved

From a mid-summer shoot with m. I just love how natural rope can seem so rich against skin.

Shot by N. Maxwell Lander, a fantastic photographer I can’t wait to work with again.

This is what I spent the night of October 3rd, 2009 doing. And I have to say, there are much worse ways to spend an evening.

The Keyhole Sessions hosted a special event at Nuit Blanche this year, “Girls.Grease.Rope” and it was a blast. Seven models, six hours, two riggers, a lot of energy and some fantastic artwork made for a very memorable and exciting evening. Everyone pulled together and the whole night ran amazingly smoothly.

Click on the picture above for the Madame’s wrap-up post about the evening, she pretty much covers all the necessary thank-yous and shout-outs. My co-rigger for the evening, lotuslily, blogged some thoughts about the night here, and Skellington, one of our models, wrote about her first experience on stage for us here. I haven’t done much digging, but I imagine a search on Flickr  for “nuit blanche keyhole sessions” or even just “nuit blanche hot girls rope” might come up with a few images. Besides the amazing number of people who came out to draw, there certainly was no shortage of cameras, phone- and otherwise.

We took last week off of the Keyhole Sessions, giving us all a chance to recouperate. We’re back on stage this Tuesday the 13th, in the lower studio at 100 A Ossington in Toronto. If you’re around and feel like getting pencil to paper, come on by.

Thanks to @violetblue for the tip.

It’s been too long, I know. Life got in the way but things are clearing up now and I’m back and have no plans to fade.

*image grabbed from… somewhere… forgotten… dammit…

Boy, do I want one of these.