![Ghost-Painted Self-Portrait of Audacia Ray - 4x3 feet, oil on canvas
I started this painting on February 1st, and finished it around the middle of April, 2009. The reasons why this project took so long are because it’s a large painting (here’s a photo of me standing next to it) and because I used traditional oil glazing to create every single detail, except for the solid color blocks of the underpainting (seen in this photo). Everything else was made with many, many layers of thin, transparent paint.
Although I’ve written about Audacia Ray numerous times on this blog, I never explained why I decided to approach her for this project. So here we go.
- Dacia and I are friends. I first discovered her through a post on Fleshbot, back when it didn’t suck (sorry, Lux. It’s your bossman’s fault.). I started reading her blog, and I loved it. It was a weird, kinky and personal ‘sex-blog’ written by this hot Sicilian chick who posed in pictures with a strap-on. It became a daily read.
- The first time we met was at a panel at the Museum of Sex in NYC for an anthology we’d both contributed to. We didn’t become instant friends, which is always a good sign (insta-friendships usually crash and burn).
- I found out that she was an executive editor at $pread magazine, which remains - as far as I know - the only print publication exclusively dedicated to sex work (even though Dacia no longer works with $pread, it’s one of my favorite magazines of all time).
- After meeting in person, we did start communicating professionally. I’d met many pro-porn feminists, authors, directors and activists, but there was something markedly different about Audacia (I wrote more about this here).
- Around that time, the tone of her blog posts on Waking Vixen started changing. They became less personal and more, well, more well-written. More like real writing.
- Soon after that, she made a bisexual porn movie for Sexyland. Before she and I decided to approach Sexyland with the production proposal, I went up to NYC to meet with her and a couple other folks. The two things I remember most about that trip:
A. Dacia took me to a small gallery somewhere in that big-ass city. It was the first time I saw the wonderful work of the artist and businesswoman Molly Crabapple, who is also the founder of the successful, world-wide Dr. Sketchy’s Anti-Art School.
B. As we were leaving the gallery, Dacia casually mentioned that she was working on her MFA from Columbia. Like, no big deal or anything. Just an MFA from Columbia. Let’s go get a beer and shit.
- My memory for dates is awful, but I think Dacia started writing her first book while she was shooting, managing and producing her first porn movie.
- When I started reading that book, Naked on the Internet, I was expecting the content to be more memoiry and bloggy. Instead, this book is probably the best and most well-researched history of sex-related websites, the cultural phenomena of sex on the internet, and the repercussions and results of the above. It’s the kind of book that college students read, and it’s really fucking interesting.
- Dacia then began teaching classes on human sexuality at Rutgers University.
- Oh, wait. Did I forget to mention that she used to do sex work for a living? Sorry. That’s usually the most popular item on her resume, especially with mainstream media companies like CNN (you can read about that here).
- After a while, she started a pretty cool video blog called Live Girl Review. She taught herself web design, and how to shoot and edit video. The project featured everything from honest reviews of sex toys and products (HONEST reviews, which are very rare in the adult retail world - most are sweet bits of bullshit written by bloggers who are paid to barf up glowingly positive reviews of mediocre merchandise) to obscure books and artists.
- She also headed the short-lived but much-adored videoblog Naked City TV for Time Out New York.
- These days, Dacia is the online strategist for the International Women’s Health Coalition in NYC. The IWHC is an international non-profit company, and this is their mission: “We empower local leaders and help them build and sustain their organizations. We mobilize women and young people to act. We inform powerbrokers and we advocate for women’s rights and health in nations’ capitals and the UN.” Very fancy and important stuff.
- Dacia also started, designed and continues to manage and contribute to Akimbo, the IWHC blog that focuses on women’s rights issues around the world.
- In her spare time, wherever the hell she finds it, Dacia continues to work on projects like Speak Up!, a media-training service for sex workers who are interested in letting you (yes, you) know that hookers and whores and prostitutes and hoes are regular, normal, intelligent folks who have the good sense to recognize that sex work, from congressional advocacy to hand-jobs in hotel rooms, is never, ever, ever going to disappear. And that maybe, if you open your eyes wide, you’ll learn that all sex work (minus the minors) needs to be legalized and organized in order to protect the rights of sex workers and their patrons.
- In addition to the work that I’m forgetting or don’t know about, Dacia also has a couple of secret projects in the works. She always has something up her sleeve.
Everything I’ve listed above had some impact on why I asked Audacia Ray to participate in this painting project. But the biggest, most important, main, top, number one reason why she remains one of my internet heroes is because she’s a responsible blogger with more self-discipline than anyone I’ve ever encountered online. The woman has a personal code and a strong set of morals. I’ll leave it at that, because she knows exactly what I mean.
You can see more of the painting’s details in this larger image. And if you want to see how it was made from start to finish, process photos are here.
[p.s. dacia, it was a pleasure to paint your self-portrait. you’re good people. rock the fuck on.]](http://24.media.tumblr.com/kfibP3zrMmxnp3rmAsRBA50do1_400.jpg)
Ghost-Painted Self-Portrait of Audacia Ray - 4x3 feet, oil on canvas
I started this painting on February 1st, and finished it around the middle of April, 2009. The reasons why this project took so long are because it’s a large painting (here’s a photo of me standing next to it) and because I used traditional oil glazing to create every single detail, except for the solid color blocks of the underpainting (seen in this photo). Everything else was made with many, many layers of thin, transparent paint.
Although I’ve written about Audacia Ray numerous times on this blog, I never explained why I decided to approach her for this project. So here we go.
- Dacia and I are friends. I first discovered her through a post on Fleshbot, back when it didn’t suck (sorry, Lux. It’s your bossman’s fault.). I started reading her blog, and I loved it. It was a weird, kinky and personal ‘sex-blog’ written by this hot Sicilian chick who posed in pictures with a strap-on. It became a daily read.
- The first time we met was at a panel at the Museum of Sex in NYC for an anthology we’d both contributed to. We didn’t become instant friends, which is always a good sign (insta-friendships usually crash and burn).
- I found out that she was an executive editor at $pread magazine, which remains - as far as I know - the only print publication exclusively dedicated to sex work (even though Dacia no longer works with $pread, it’s one of my favorite magazines of all time).
- After meeting in person, we did start communicating professionally. I’d met many pro-porn feminists, authors, directors and activists, but there was something markedly different about Audacia (I wrote more about this here).
- Around that time, the tone of her blog posts on Waking Vixen started changing. They became less personal and more, well, more well-written. More like real writing.
- Soon after that, she made a bisexual porn movie for Sexyland. Before she and I decided to approach Sexyland with the production proposal, I went up to NYC to meet with her and a couple other folks. The two things I remember most about that trip:
A. Dacia took me to a small gallery somewhere in that big-ass city. It was the first time I saw the wonderful work of the artist and businesswoman Molly Crabapple, who is also the founder of the successful, world-wide Dr. Sketchy’s Anti-Art School.
B. As we were leaving the gallery, Dacia casually mentioned that she was working on her MFA from Columbia. Like, no big deal or anything. Just an MFA from Columbia. Let’s go get a beer and shit.
- My memory for dates is awful, but I think Dacia started writing her first book while she was shooting, managing and producing her first porn movie.
- When I started reading that book, Naked on the Internet, I was expecting the content to be more memoiry and bloggy. Instead, this book is probably the best and most well-researched history of sex-related websites, the cultural phenomena of sex on the internet, and the repercussions and results of the above. It’s the kind of book that college students read, and it’s really fucking interesting.
- Dacia then began teaching classes on human sexuality at Rutgers University.
- Oh, wait. Did I forget to mention that she used to do sex work for a living? Sorry. That’s usually the most popular item on her resume, especially with mainstream media companies like CNN (you can read about that here).
- After a while, she started a pretty cool video blog called Live Girl Review. She taught herself web design, and how to shoot and edit video. The project featured everything from honest reviews of sex toys and products (HONEST reviews, which are very rare in the adult retail world - most are sweet bits of bullshit written by bloggers who are paid to barf up glowingly positive reviews of mediocre merchandise) to obscure books and artists.
- She also headed the short-lived but much-adored videoblog Naked City TV for Time Out New York.
- These days, Dacia is the online strategist for the International Women’s Health Coalition in NYC. The IWHC is an international non-profit company, and this is their mission: “We empower local leaders and help them build and sustain their organizations. We mobilize women and young people to act. We inform powerbrokers and we advocate for women’s rights and health in nations’ capitals and the UN.” Very fancy and important stuff.
- Dacia also started, designed and continues to manage and contribute to Akimbo, the IWHC blog that focuses on women’s rights issues around the world.
- In her spare time, wherever the hell she finds it, Dacia continues to work on projects like Speak Up!, a media-training service for sex workers who are interested in letting you (yes, you) know that hookers and whores and prostitutes and hoes are regular, normal, intelligent folks who have the good sense to recognize that sex work, from congressional advocacy to hand-jobs in hotel rooms, is never, ever, ever going to disappear. And that maybe, if you open your eyes wide, you’ll learn that all sex work (minus the minors) needs to be legalized and organized in order to protect the rights of sex workers and their patrons.
- In addition to the work that I’m forgetting or don’t know about, Dacia also has a couple of secret projects in the works. She always has something up her sleeve.
Everything I’ve listed above had some impact on why I asked Audacia Ray to participate in this painting project. But the biggest, most important, main, top, number one reason why she remains one of my internet heroes is because she’s a responsible blogger with more self-discipline than anyone I’ve ever encountered online. The woman has a personal code and a strong set of morals. I’ll leave it at that, because she knows exactly what I mean.
You can see more of the painting’s details in this larger image. And if you want to see how it was made from start to finish, process photos are here.
[p.s. dacia, it was a pleasure to paint your self-portrait. you’re good people. rock the fuck on.]
