At least twice a week I check the messages viewers’ leave on the Rebsart.com Guest Book. It is always interesting, as I never know what I will find.

Lo and behold, I find a message from “Blake”, asking about possibly having his own Gallery. And after he sent me a few samples of his work, I really got excited. Blake can create anything with his brush – from aliens to bondage to Mistresses and slaves. I’m sure you will enjoy his work, and his originals are available for purchase.

Now, here’s “BLAKE”…

BLAKE - born 1951, Portland, Oregon

My life as an artist has been varied and this is also true of my academic years studying art abroad in Europe in 1970-71. I began in Paris at a private art school and after a couple months drawing rather old, flaccid nude French women models, I hit the road to see the major art museums of several southern European cities. 

I fell in love with Classical art and sculpture, especially the erotic art of Pompei, which I saw in the archaeological museum in Naples. I returned to Portland, studied sculpture and drawing and earned a BA in 1974 from Portland State University. For two years I exhibited my sculptures in several competitions and I had two one man shows in Portland and Saratoga, California at Villa Montalvo. 

In 1976 I joined the Army to escape my parents' negativity about my life as an artist. For a year I endured the military and they allowed me to help run the arts and crafts building at Fort Huachuca, Arizona. I resolved to quit the Army, did that and moved to Sacramento to meet up with my future wife, Kathleen. We lived in Sacramento for three years. I exhibited my erotic sculpture in competitions and had a one-man show. 

I resolved to be where the action was and moved to LA where I spent five years creating sculpture of one kind or another and I sold my small ivory carvings to a wealthy group of art collectors in the Netsuke Society. I became well known as a carver of netsuke and had my work published in several books, mostly in Japan. I did a year's graduate work at Otis-Parson Art Institute and that was the end of my academic life. 

I taught art in Chino Institution for Men on a grant from UCLA for a year, then moved to Oregon in 1985. For the next six years I had a career as a sculptor and my work was exhibited widely in American cities and in Japan. In 1991 I broke with my agent and my work took a much different direction. I became interested again in erotica and I decided to devote more time to drawing and sculpting erotic themes. 

I discovered BDSM about 1993 and began drawing women wearing fetish clothing. Soon the women began to appear in bizarre situations with restraints. I see myself now as more of a fetish artist with BDSM overtones. My preferred media are graphite pencil, colored pencil, pen and ink and charcoal. The internet seems to be the perfect venue for exhibiting BDSM art. The web seems to lower peoples' inhibitions about viewing sexually explicit artwork, which they would otherwise not see. I feel the need to express this darker side of my personality and I hope to draw a lot more BDSM inspired images in the future. 

My travels to Japan over the past decade have revealed the erotica nature of that culture's art called Shunga. The Japanese artists would portray couples engaged in sex play with oversize genitals to emphasize the libido. I tend to exaggerate the genitals in some of my works to illustrate that sex is such a strong force in human existence. 

My favorite Japanese artist is Hokusai, long dead, who would sign his drawings "Old Man Crazy About Drawing". Well, I may not be as old as Hokusai was when he said that, but I certainly am crazy about drawing and I like to draw crazy things! My sculptures and carvings are in many private collections here and abroad, but now it is time to make drawings of the dark side of my sexual persona and see where this adventure leads.

If you would like special custom drawings, you can contact me through "Reb" at: rebelstout@aol.com  

                                    -- Blake