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Paedra
One person show at the AVA Gallery in 2005: My Search for the
Feminine Divine
peter666@sover.net
See some
of Paedra's Fetish Paintings & Sculpture
Paedra Bramwell is a multidisciplinary artist living in southern
Vermont. She has been a full-time artist for 36 years and specializes in
steel and blown glass sculptures, as well as paintings with an
underlying theme of dominance and submission. In addition to being an
active member of the BDSM groups in her area, she does portraits of many
scene people locally.
NOTE FROM SADIE: Just so there is no confusion, Paedra is a heterosexual
man also named Peter who dresses as a woman nearly all the time. As
such, I honor her connection to the feminine by speaking of her and
referring to her as a woman. When I use the word
"transgendered" I'm using it in a general sense to include all
gender crossings, not to specifically mean "transsexual" which
Paedra is not.
SENSUOUS SADIE: What are some of the most popular fetish themes in
your art? Do you think that some themes lend themselves better to
painting than others?
PAEDRA: "Themes. It is more about intensities, edges in my art.
Edges are where the growth is. They are the challenge. I look to
individuals be they Tops/Doms or Bottoms/subs or both together for a
feeling which they carry with them, a sense of who they are, of their
being and from that I energize my focus and try and transfer that to my
paintings/drawings. In a very real sense, I want to deeply look into
those who give me the privilege of drawing them and find something very
personal to put into the image which I am creating from them of them on
the paper I use. The reason for that last phrase is that though I am
drawing likenesses, I am not purposefully trying to do an exact
representation of who is modeling for me. I am not after a 'pretty'
picture. I do not rule out beauty, but first I want a personal intensity
to come forth from the painting or drawing. That does not really answer
the question. Dominance and submissiveness and the electricity which
radiates from the individual. That is the theme of my work."
Sadie: Do the BDSM themes that show up in your art also represent
your personal interests? If not, what are your personal interests that
you'd like to share? Dom or Sub?
Paedra: "This focus, this series in the continuum of my art
work, painting and drawings is relatively new, going on a bit over a
year now. It is a series which has a long way to go. Because I work
directly from the model and finding individuals to draw from is not the
easiest, I am interested in all that is BDSM, the levels of meaning, the
honesty, the directness, the sensitivities. Personally, I am a Switch.
So being I am very clear in viewing the two sides of the same coin and
which side I am on at any moment."
Sadie: When you visit BDSM play parties and munches, I'm told that
you do off-the-cuff portraits. Considering that your art sells for quite
a bit in local galleries, why do you offer this to people in the scene?
Paedra: " 'Off the cuff portraits' is not an appropriate
description. Intense art work , the beginning of is what I start. The
art work which I begin - and it is just that, because there is much that
has to be done once I get back to my studio - at munches and parties is
done there because this is where I have found individuals willing to
give of their time. I thank all for that gift. I do not go to these
events with the idea of making sales, nor do I give my art away. This
art which I am creating is a work in-progress. Images of Individuals in
The BDSM Community. Somewhere down the line there will be a major
showing. Your readers should understand that these pieces are large and
that they have great caring power visually. I and others have looked at
them from thirty feet away and felt their power and sensitivity."
Sadie: How would you characterize the artwork that you sell in the
galleries. For example I saw a lot of stunning glasswork in colors like
black and red, very sexual and very sensual. Can you talk a little bit
about this and the other work in your recent show?
Paedra: " One recent show, My Search for the Feminine Divine
was at the AVA Gallery, Lebanon, NH and included nine major pieces of
complex sculpture and 56 drawings which were 24 inches x 36 inches. Some
were framed, many in specific layouts covering a full wall spaces. Two
large framed pictures were 67 inches high by 91 inches long. The
largest sculpture, "Sanctum of the Feminine Divine" was an
octagonal structure with seven inward oval mirrors and seven
outward facing mirrors onto which were attached pieces of blown glass.
There were nine concentric circles of red and black chiffon above
and red, black and white carpet on the floor inside. It was a total ten
feet wide by ten feet deep by ten feet tall, large enough for a person
to walk into its center. I hung and designed this whole show.
"The show's focus was on the sexual and the erotic, on the feminine
as I feel it, as I comprehend it.. I am sure some of your readers out
there are saying: 'you have no right to try and speak in the feminine
voice, because you are genetically male.' I am not trying to speak for
women; I am speaking as an individual artist who looks deeply at issues
of sexuality, at issues that are considered feminine or masculine, at
issues of obscenity, at what is offensive and what is not offensive in
our society, at the polarities boxes which society puts the female and
male into rather than (and that way of looking is easier) at the
incredible spectrum of who we are. We are both. From the responses I
have gotten to my work I know I am touching some very resonant cords in
both women and in men. In my art, sculpture, drawing, painting, glass,
whatever material media I choose, I choose color specifically to evoke
in the viewer specific feelings. Very simplistically put, red is life
and vitality, black is the earth and all its fertility. White is death;
the absence of life."
Sadie: Do you find yourself aroused when creating something erotic?
Or are you really in the flow of work?
Paedra: " Art, the making of it, the using, processing of all that
is in front of me, the selecting and sorting, the task of seeing and
then seeing again and taking all that information into myself and
bringing it back out and putting it back into form is work. Hard work.
Far harder than say splitting wood. There are no other words for it. I
work mainly in ink. If you put a mark a line where you do not want it
you cannot erase it. It is a constant challenge to dare to put marks
down and not get uptight while doing so. I come away from drawing the
model exhausted! A very good kind of exhausted. No, there is no time to
get turned on to those that I am drawing in the sense of a voyeur or
what you the reader might be thinking."
Sadie: I noticed some strong themes in your work which are sexuality,
femininity, and sacredness. How did you come to these particular
strands?
Paedra: "Any artist draws from the outward and inward journey which
s/he travels thru life. First. I consider life sacred. Why? Because
without life there is nothing. Not to value life is offensive and
obscene to me. To war, to kill and maim, that is obscene. I have chosen
to focus in both the abstract and not so abstract ways on those
questions influences which have been in my life.
Sexuality in the personal as I have journeyed searched for my own
understanding of self, and how it is looked at in the world in general
have always been great wellsprings for my art."
Sadie: It's clear that some of your work shocks some viewers. I was
fascinated by your succinct explanation about how this can be a good
thing on your video interview. I wonder if you'd be kind enough to
explain this again for our readers.
Paedra: " One of the great contradictions which I find endlessly of
interest in our society is how a very sexually graphic explicit image
can be nicely framed and hung in a gallery or museum or home and that in
that way they are acceptable And yet, take the same image in the same
frame and put it in a sleazy magazine or newspaper and it is considered
pornographic. Who makes these rules? Who has the right? Why? Why? A
number of the images which I draw or paint fall into that category. So
where dose that put me? Further. Look at the explicitness of some of the
art of the past how do you reader accept it and in reality would you not
give your eye teeth to have a piece of it, if you could afford it or
even get it?
Sadie: You were formally trained in art at the Cleveland Institute of
Art. What are the styles and approach that you follow?
Paedra: "My formal art training came from The Cleveland Institute
of Art where I spent five years. It was a five-year program. Before
that, I had been in college for three years and started over again
there. The Institute gave me my eyes. My major was sculpture and minor
ceramics. I follow my own path in my work and art. I use whatever
material is appropriate to fill the needs of that piece. I have a wide
range of knowledge of materials, steel, wood, clay, glass bronze paper,
ink, paint. I plumb my own reservoir for the absorbed and digested
words/images/influences which from which I create the themes in which I
work."
Sadie: You live in Southern Vermont which isn't exactly the art
mecca. What has kept you from moving to a more central place like New
York City where surely your art would be more appreciated?
Paedra: "I live in Vermont first because in many respects I am a
country boy/girl at heart. It was a place to come home to when I got out
of the Cleveland Institute of Art and where I could start building
studio space and home. For a sculptor and a glass blower it is about
space and more space. There is no way I could have afforded the rents
for what I needed in a city environment, Nor would I have wanted to deal
with all the other problems. Yes, recognition often comes from places
where there are greater concentrations of people. But to create, an
artist for the most part has to wall themselves off, isolate themselves
in order to have that space. There are many incredible artists back in
these mountains of Vermont and New Hampshire. So this in its way is
getting my new work out to you dear viewer; that is part of what you and
I are doing now. Reaching out to the audience."
Sadie: What is the process is that you go through to create a custom
work? What kinds of works do you most often get requested to do?
Paedra: "At this time I create for myself first. That way I do not
have any restrictions. I am open to commissions and welcome them. But,
and this requires trust on that person, it has to be within my vision
and how I see. I will not do a piece of art in a style of another, nor
to fit someone's decor. I bring a unique viewpoint to each piece. The
client needs to trust in my ability and the fact that I have a reservoir
of 36+ years to draw from to put into that piece of art. I value and
respect each client and I expect fully no less in return. If that is
there, then I will accept the commission."
Sadie: In one of your recent art shows you did a live performance
piece where you destroyed some of your art in an attempt to demonstrate
how the value of art can change, perhaps increase or decrease because of
that destruction. I'm interested if you saw your own art in that context
as similar to a Tibetan sand Mandela in that it was meant to be
temporary or was it more to demonstrate the meaninglessness of the value
of art itself?
Paedra: "Yes to all these questions, And much more. There were many
levels of meaning both in relating to ideas and influences outside of me
and to my own personal journey as well in that art performance titled
Transition. It was a very important piece then and remains so. It, and
its creation and birth is a whole interview in itself, a whole journey.
I have many voices with which I speak in the forms which I choose for my
art. This was a first and I was blown away by the strength of the
response. People were moved by it, and remember it clearly. I am so
honored. I had to reach way down deep and find the courage to create
that performance; I had to dare myself to go where I had never been
before and to trust in myself."
Sadie: I notice that you dress in rather colorful outfits. In one
video interview you wore a shiny red blouse, purple skirt, green tights,
bold jewelry, and of course you have red hair. What do you feel that
this image adds to your overall image as an artist and a transgendered
person?
Paedra: "I love color and cloths and have great fun with them. I
feel a person should wear whatever they feel comfortable wearing. It
doesn't make any difference whether you are transgendered or male or
female or. It is about feeling good and enjoying. I like flowing sensual
cloths and, both male and female. This part of my journey just happens
to be focusing on the feminine. If you feel good about yourself you can
wear just about anything and pull it off."
Sadie: You have said that being transgendered is a gift, in
particular that you are sensitive to differences in sexuality. Could you
expand on what this means?
Paedra: "Being transgendered has caused me to look deeply at
sexuality in general and my own, how all this relates in the world we
live in and. Questioning cause growth. Being willing to question takes
courage. This is true for anyone who really lives life. Being trans has
opened areas of sensitivity which might not have been a focus were that
not part of my being. Being sensitive is a strength. Awareness is a
strength. Serenity is a strength. Not just exclusive to being
transgendered, but for me personally, in the mix of who I am."
Sadie: Thank you for chatting with me!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sensuous Sadie is the author of It's Not About the Whip: Love, Sex, and
Spirituality in the BDSM Scene. Read an excerpt at http://www.trafford.com/robots/03-0551.html.
She is the founder and leader (1999 - 2001) of Rose & Thorn,
Vermont's first BDSM group. Comments, compliments and complaints, as
well as requests for reprinting can be addressed to her at SensuousSadie@aol.com
or visit her website at www.sensuoussadie.com.
Sadie believes the universe is abundant, and that sharing information
freely is part of this abundance, so she allows reprints of her writing
in most venues.
Copyright 2005 Sadie Sez Publications
See some
of Paedra's Fetish Paintings & Sculpture
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