Entitled to Pleasure

You voted, and I am seriously happy to share with you the first tasters of the creative project I have been working on.

Entitled to Pleasure explores the relationship between shame and pleasure.

This is one of my favourite photos taken with photographer Jamie Keys. "So fresh & so klean"

I'll tell you the story of how we ended up working together....

I had just split up with S (as you know, because you follow the AC, and are privy to the everyday ins and out of my personal life in great detail) and I was in a foul mood. I went to a bar. The bar. The only bar worth going to in Gozo, where you will undoubtedly bump into at least one, if not 10, or 20 people that you know. Chances are you may even recognise every face in the room!

I'm at a table. I lock eyes with the guy across from me. I haven't seen him here before. Fresh blood? English. He smiles. I'm won. I drive my friend home and make the decision to come back and not miss the opportunity to get to know this alluring stranger better. We chat, and chat. A few easy hours roll by, talking about art and people. J has a strong talent for observing characters and goes to great lengths to describe in detail the people he meets in unusual situations. He's very entertaining and full of energy. Like one of those effervescent Vitamin C capsules, he captures the crowd.

He doesn't have a place to stay. I avoid offering him mine. N offers. It's a guy who for the last year, has been turning up to the bar in drag, and everyone respects him, because he is indeed authentic. J says with a grin that N has "kidnapped" him on a number of occasions! The night passes and N changes his mind, he wants to go partying down in Mgarr. J & I can't think of anything worse. I offer J a bed at mine. In the spare room. That doesn't happen. I accept the invitation as my reward for saying no to what I didn't want (S) and  the universe gifts me in the form of a talented, fun, handsome stranger.

At the bar J suggests we make a creative project together. I tell him about Entitled to Pleasure. He says we don't know what we'll create, that's the magic, but let's meet on Monday at the abandoned hotel. it's a perfect setting filled with grafitti. A whole hotel, rundown, dirty, abandoned and seldom frequented by visitors.

These photos started as a "test" shoot. But as every artist knows, always be prepared, because if it's flowing, make sure you brought props, camera equipment etc, and that's exactly what happens...we start playing, and then through these photos we start to build a story, which then become a music video....

I'll be sharing more tomorrow ;-)