Ep #4: Dealing with censorship as a queer, erotic artist - with Edward Ficklin
Join me for a delightful conversation with the wonderful Edward Ficklin! In this episode of Zuzu's Haus of Cats Presents… we explore the risqué world of Edward's erotic art and discuss the hurdles of being an erotic artist in our increasingly conservative digital landscape.
Edward and I chat about everything from the beauty of comics as a medium (not just a genre) to the frustrations of dealing with censorship on social media platforms. We share a laugh over his clever ways of working around the rules and talk about the importance of creating your own community when the mainstream isn't quite ready for you.
But it's not all heavy stuff - we also discuss Edward's creative process, his fondness for flowers (Georgia O'Keeffe would approve), and how he juggles his art with a day job. Plus, we delve into the wonderfully subversive world of creating art that's filthy without breaking any rules - how's that for clever?
So, if you're feeling a bit daring and want to push at your edges a little bit without being shut down by the Internet, this episode is a must listen. Enjoy, darling!
You can watch the video version here:
Or listen to the audio version here (click the arrow at the bottom right to play):
Find out more about Edward:
Edward Ficklin (he/him), the maverick artist not afraid to say gay, is dedicated to creating erotic art as a pathway to liberation for all. His surrealist work centers the nude figure exploring its own delights, ranging from the sensual to the ecstatic. In defiance of the societal forces attempting erasure by legislation, algorithm, or so-called “community” standards, he delights viewers with imagery of sex and body positivity.
His paintings have appeared in NYC galleries like Foley Gallery and the SoHo Project Space, national exhibitions dedicated to erotic art such as CLAW Leather Getaway Kinky Art Show and Tucson Erotica, and numerous naughty, but high quality, publications like Erotic Edges, Doable Guys, and Dirty Little Drawings.
He likes his martinis straight up, with a twist, and, of course, made with gin. He adores the grit, freedom, and wild unpredictability of urban existence and continues, likely to the grave, attempts to get that orchid plant to bloom again.
Visit Edward’s website
Find Edward on Instagram
Find Edward on Mastodon
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Eli Trier: Hello and welcome to Zuzu's Haus of Cats Presents. I'm Eli Trier, your host, and on this podcast, I love to talk to my fellow artists and creative people about the work that they make. We dive deep into the creative process and cover everything from why they make what they make, to how they actually get everything done, and everything in between.
In this episode, Zuzu's Haus of Cats is delighted to present the fabulous Edward Ficklin. Edward Ficklin is dedicated to creating erotic art as a pathway to liberation. His surrealist work centers the nude figure exploring its own delights, ranging from the sensual to the ecstatic in defiance of the societal forces attempting erasure by legislation algorithm, or so-called community standards. He delights viewers with imagery of sex and body positivity. His paintings have appeared in New York City galleries, national exhibitions dedicated to erotic art and numerous naughty but high-quality publications.
In our conversation today, we talk about the difficulties Edward has faced promoting his art online, and the creative ways that he's overcome those challenges. Now let's meet Edward.
Eli: Why don't we get started by you telling us a little bit about your background and how you got started as an artist?
Edward Ficklin: It's been a journey of creative wandering. I was very creative as a little child, did a lot of drawing, painting, exploring different things. Parents encouraged it to a certain extent. That led me on different paths throughout my life. Started with writing, music, and theater. About 10 years ago, it started switching into more visual, particularly through the medium of comics.
I rediscovered comics through the popularity of superhero comics, which I liked as a kid. That got me thinking about comics again. I discovered, with more adult eyes, that there was this vast world where comics is a medium, not a genre. That's a very important distinction, and there is a whole world of vast possibilities. It opened up a new way of working and telling stories that I hadn't explored before.
That's what got me going with the visual, and it pulled in the writing and theatrical elements. Comics and graphic novels have almost no limit to what you can do. If you can imagine it and draw it, there it is. From there, I also started exploring fine art painting. Now it's the two together that really drive my artistic practice. They play with each other and inform each other in a lot of ways, but they both share equal place in my heart.
Eli: I love what you say about comics being a medium and not a genre. That's really interesting. Can you say more about that?
Edward: I wish I had come up with that myself. Amy Chu, a fabulous comics writer, has said that a number of times. In a lot of people's minds, comics have gotten pigeonholed with superheroes like Superman and Batman. But that's just the tip of the iceberg. There's all kinds of other stuff out there.
You can tell any kind of story in this particular medium, and people have been for a long time. Younger readers are devouring graphic literature in various forms, whether it's Japanese-inspired manga coming from all over the world now, or slice of life stuff that's really popular in the US right now with artists like Raina Telgemeier.
It'll be interesting to see how, as these younger readers become adults, what they will take with them. My experience was loving comics as a kid, reading a lot, but being encouraged to put it aside as I grew older because it wasn't considered "proper literature." There's this idea that something isn't legitimate literature or a legitimate story unless it's all words. But when you put words and pictures together, it can be incredibly sophisticated and can tell any kind of story.
Eli: The beauty of graphic literature is that you can tell stories on multiple levels. You can have the words telling one story and the pictures telling another story, and the way they coalesce creates something completely new. Do you find that there are two different processes for your comic book work and your fine art, or does it all come from the same creative place?
Edward: Spiritually speaking, it's all coming from the same place. The ideas, motivations, and stories are all coming from the same well. When it comes to the actual realization of these things, though, they're vastly different. I tend to separate them - there's comic-making time and painting time. I don't mix them or switch back and forth in a single day.
The biggest difference is that for comics, I tend to use more digital tools because there's more work involved and I'm creating something meant to be reproduced. The fine art paintings are unique, individual physical objects. The materials are very different too. For traditional materials in comics, it's pen and ink and watercolor. Paintings are oil, which has its own demands and safety concerns.
Visually, I'm working in the same style, the same kind of language, the same erotic content in both the comics and the paintings. But the practical aspects of creating them tend to diverge.
Eli: Your style across your comic work and your painting is very cohesive - it's obvious that it's your work. You've got these two different strands to your creative practice, and then there's the promotional side of things. And you have a day job as well. How on earth do you balance it all? How do you fit it all in?
Edward: Well, I'm always tired, first of all! The key balancing act is the day job. I work for a wonderful little company that's committed to the four-day work week. They adopted it slightly before I joined the company. So yeah, four days a week, Monday through Thursday is the job. I have some extra time those days, either before or after, because it's not an all-consuming job. The company emphasizes work-life balance and autonomy.
Then I have two days a week that are totally wide open, and then that extra one more day still to just rest. So I do have a six-day work week when you take into account all the things, but there's still that one extra day, and that's what makes the key difference. The four-day work week makes such a huge difference, and I really want to see that universally adopted.
Eli: Your work is almost exclusively erotica. I wanted to talk to you about the challenges you've faced. We're living in a digital age with a wealth of platforms available, but most of them have strict and often archaic policies when it comes to erotic content. There's a lot of censorship. What sort of issues have you come across, and how have you navigated them?
Edward: It's tricky. I came of age at a time when the internet was seen as this great Wild West where you could find anything. Now it's become almost the opposite - the digital realm is a little bit more puritanical than real life these days.
My work, especially the comics, can get pretty explicit. That's why I tend not to do much in the way of digital distribution of the comics. I may sell the print versions online, but the actual page-by-page content isn't available online. The paintings tend to be a little more softcore and suggestive rather than explicit. They do feature nudity, which is against the rules on many platforms.
There's no consistency to the different rules on different platforms, and there's selective enforcement. The rules are there, but how they're applied and who they're applied to varies. Other artists working with queer erotic subjects have expressed concern about this - if it's made by straight people for straight people, it gets a little more flexibility than content for a queer audience.
Sometimes I just have fun with it. I play around with cropping, fun little emojis, and things like that. You can kind of turn it into a game and call attention to the censorship while still not fully playing by the rules. But I do have to stop every time I post. I can't just post automatically or set it up to go without thinking. There's a sort of safety check that has to happen every time.
There's also the issue of hateful people weaponizing the censorship tools and reporting systems against people they have problems with. I have artist friends who've had account after account locked down because they keep getting reported.
Eli: That's so frustrating. And it does seem to happen more often to queer people, trans people, people of color - anyone who's doing anything outside the norm. Have you ever felt pressure to censor yourself to make your work more "acceptable" for online platforms?
Edward: All the time. There's always that question of "Should I post this?" or "Can I post this?" or "Do I have to crop it in some particular way?" It can even filter into the initial work stages, the idea generation phase. You start thinking, "Well, I could do that, and it would be a lot of fun, but I can't post it online," or "Where could I show it?" It creeps in at that level, which is a little bit disappointing.
I try to set that voice aside and just run with it to see what happens. It can also be an interesting challenge to see what the possibilities are. Working in a series or a set of works can help find a balance. I'm working on a set of smaller paintings right now with floral elements and male figures, exploring combinations and letting there be a range. Some can be very mild, and some can be very explicit. If I have 10 or 15 of them, then I have a variety for different settings - some that I can post online, some that can go into different shows, some for shows that accept more erotic work.
It's been an interesting exploration, taking this limitation that feels unfair and imposed upon me and turning it into a catalyst for pushing my work in different directions. It pushes me to work in series and explore a whole range of eroticism. Recently, I've discovered that you can make something highly erotic but still completely follow the "rules." Nudity can be erotic, but so can being fully clothed. There's a whole range of things that convey an erotic spirit, which aren't necessarily about nudity.
Even just facial expressions in a portrait can be very erotic, even though it's fully clothed and just a face. It might still get flagged as suggestive content, but it's not against the rules. So they can't take it down unless they change the rules.
Eli: I love that you can take the limitation and turn it into something creative. A lot of creativity comes from having less of what you need - necessity is the mother of invention. And I love that you've done this with censorship. It feels really subversive that you can put something out there that feels provocative but still conforms to the censorship rules.
You use a lot of surreal elements in your work. Do you have any symbolism or things that mean certain things to you that a casual viewer wouldn't necessarily recognize?
Edward: I find flowers highly erotic, so they tend to make their way into my work a lot. Georgia O'Keeffe is definitely the origin, the grandmother of us all in that regard. Also, certain themes where the human and the non-human intersect, like angels, fauns, satyrs - mythology is filled with human and animal combinations. I feel like there's a lot of erotic potential there, even if most people don't think of it as erotic.
Eli: Do you find that with your work, there's some kind of education that needs to be done to help your audience understand the artistic value of what you do, or to make it okay to value erotic art? Do you take that on as your role as an artist to help educate people around these topics?
Edward: I hope so. I'm not exactly setting out to do that specifically, but I do hope that's what's happening. I think the erotic is a pathway to liberation, both in the sense of tearing down patriarchal and capitalistic structures and in a spiritual sense.
I think the erotic can be a path to liberation because it's an energy that questions and creates. It doesn't follow the rules. In fact, it encourages you to not follow rules, and that is very dangerous to the patriarchy. So I think encouraging that in any shape or form is a way of challenging that.
I also think that the erotic and the spiritual are not disconnected. Western culture has disconnected those two, denigrating the erotic in favor of a spiritual that is not centered in the body or the real world. But eroticism is about union in many ways. It's about a coming together of energies and spirits. So there's a highly spiritual aspect to the erotic.
I'm hoping all of this comes through in the erotic work, even in the silly erotic comics. They're very erotic, but I'm also hoping that there's a big heart to them. It's not just about exploitation or titillation. It's more about how the erotic is a connection to spiritual connection with other people and the world around us. So I'm hoping it's more like leading by example, as opposed to an actual lesson for other people.
Eli: To wrap things up, what kind of advice would you give to artists or anyone who wants to explore themes of sexuality and erotica, or anything that pushes into the edges a little bit?
Edward: Don't censor yourself. Don't internalize the censor. Make the art you want to make, even if you know you're going to face challenges in getting it out there and sharing it. Don't let that stop you from making it.
Also, find community to help support and encourage you. Whether that's online or in person, community can be just as real in either venue. Don't go it alone - find kindred spirits to help you along the path because there will be challenges. There will be times when you're creating work that's going up against the rules and challenging the status quo, and the status quo will fire back at you. You want to have some people in your corner to help, and also be prepared to help them when they face their challenges as well.
So don't censor yourself and find and build community.
Eli: That's very wise advice. Thank you so much for joining us today, Edward. I really appreciate your wisdom, insight, and creativity. Where can people find you if they're interested in finding out more about your erotic wonderland?
Edward: The best place is the website, edwardficklin.com. I do have an Instagram account, which is just @EdwardFicklin, and I'm on Mastodon, which is part of the fediverse. You can find me on the wolf.group server - my handle there is @lavenderTiger. On the website, there's a form to sign up for the email newsletter if you want to do it old school.
Eli: I highly recommend the emails. They're always interesting and send me off down a bunch of rabbit holes. They're absolutely glorious. All of these links will be in the show notes. Thank you so much for joining me. It's been great.
Edward: Thank you. This was great.
Eli: A huge thank you to Edward for being on the show. I hope hearing his story has made you feel a little bit braver. I know it has for me. Don't forget to go and check out all of his work. You can find all of his information and where to find him in the show notes.
Thank you so much for tuning in to another episode of Zuzu's Haus of Cats Presents. We'll be back in one month with our next guest, the phenomenally smart and talented Rachel Catherine Allen. Make sure you don't miss it by subscribing to my YouTube channel Zuzu's Haus of Cats or signing up at elinortrier.com/podcast. Until next time, bye!
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