The St Andrew's Cross Abstracts - Expulsion

Step by Step Development of Piece

The St Andrews Cross is a bondage device. The purpose is to place a person on it and bind their hands and feet to the cross in a spread-eagle position.

The Idea of the St Andrews Cross Abstracts came from combining abstract body painting with a bondage environment where the tools of Dominance are used in the role of the paint brush. For example, using a flogger to spread the paint upon the body by dipping the ends of the flogger in the paint. The tools a Dom uses are varied and a lot of them are improvisations, but in the end the tools that cause pain or pleasure can also act as paint brushes. 

The goal is to use the tools in such a way as to create an ecstatic body language throughout the series. The pain and pleasure of the model is translated into that language as the body painting is created. I am using only men who consider themselves submissive and have some understanding of the sub/dom relationship. 

The cross was mounted onto a platform with a canvas backdrop behind it in order to keep the cross steady and to create an abstract backdrop that the model merges into.

Everything is controlled within the studio environment. Lighting is crucial. These sessions take place at night. Lighting allows for bright white light or ambient soft lighting from every angle. Candle light is also used. 

Even the choice of music is preplanned to create an atmosphere which the model reacts to.But this preplanning stops when the actual painting begins. The abstraction created is totally spontaneous creativity. The paint upon the body takes on its own life throughout the session which is controlled through the use of both pain and pleasure. The paint goes where it wishes based on the body language of the model. 

Other substances are used besides paint. The liberal use of mud upon the body creates an air of humiliation that again translates into the body language of the model. The use of ropes to bind parts of the body is also used. 

With all that said, here is the art from the first session. More will be added as it becomes available.