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Edward Ficklin

Edward Ficklin (he/him), the maverick artist not afraid to say gay, is a self-taught painter, writer, publisher and sometimes technologist. He creates sensuous and erotically-tinged queer surrealist art, publishes queer-centered sci-fi comix, and pontificates regularly on a range of topics in his Queer Quantum Dispatch newsletter.

Featured Post

Shameless and perverse flaunting

One of the most wonderful spring rituals of the NYC area is the New York Botanical Garden’s Orchid Show. A fabulously steamy display of the sexiest flowers nature has to offer. You’ve got more sexual organs on display than even the wildest backroom. It’s on through April 21. If you’re in the area, check it out. Over the last couple of years, flowers have been showing up more and more in my paintings. So, on the occasion of my visit to this year’s extravaganza, I posed myself the question: why...

14 days ago • 3 min read

Darlings, how are you? Looking fabulous as always. Two juicy updates on my recent exploits at furthering my gay agenda. First, a naughty art show in the desert and then, a new chapter in the graphic novel. Two of my bois headed on a trip west for the Tucson Erotica art show running March 2-30. The show runs the entire month, punctuated with special events that look delicious. If you go, I hope you’ll share all the juicy details. Nudge, nudge, wink, wink. Sharing the walls with all the other...

about 1 month ago • 1 min read

Twisted wood branches in the foreground with an arc of stars in the sky above a dark distant mountain. A sea of purple aster flowers, with round yellow centers and thick manes of straight thin lavender petals, like purple daisies. Lovely little poems, these, you might be saying. But, they’re not poems, exactly. They’re very interesting examples of alt text (taken from this amazing book). On websites, in apps, and other digital media, alt text is used to describe an image, or provide an...

about 1 month ago • 3 min read

Hello, darlings. Looking fabulous, as always. Today, I’d like to celebrate that magical, mysterious, sometimes painful, moment of “knowing” a painting is done. I mean, seriously, you can keep working on the damn thing forever. “Finished” isn’t so much a distinct state or point in time as it is a decision and declaration. Put the brush down and call it done. Sometimes joyful, sometimes frustrated. Sometimes just plain exhausted. All this to say I recently finished a painting that I was...

2 months ago • 2 min read
book cover with nake male torso against a bright yellow background

Hello, darlings! Looking fabulous, as always. Today’s treat is a fun book about men. A subject near and dear to my heart—the subject of most of my art and a great deal of my attention. I present to you, for your delectation, The Male Gazed by Manuel Betancourt. Both personal and insightful, Betancourt gives us a single individual’s experience (his own) as a lens through which to see larger trends around male beauty and the queer gaze that appreciates, and possibly defines, it. Reading it, I...

3 months ago • 3 min read

Hello, darlings. How are you? Looking fabulous, as always. Big glittery hello ✨ to those joining us after the last Dandyland event! Lovely to meet you--or see you again! This fall I had the honor of being interviewed for the inaugural issue of Erotic Edges magazine. It’s a delightfully naughty digital publication put out by the intrepid duo behind the virtual drawing group of the same name. It’s a wonderful, international community celebrating unrestrained eroticism in both art and life. The...

3 months ago • 1 min read

Darlings, how are you? Looking fabulous as always. Here in the US we’re heading full-steam ahead into both winter and the “holidays”. The first is lovely and offers lots of austere beauty and opportunities for cozy snuggling. At the second, I shudder a bit. I, like so many other queer folk, have mixed feelings stemming from familial and societal disregard for my well-being and the heteronormative expectations of the season. Despite misgivings, however, the unrestrained glitter-bombing of...

4 months ago • 1 min read

The Queer Quantum Dispatch Making your world a little less straight. Darlings, how are you? Looking fabulous as always. 😘 Rounding out the recent fascination with things spacey and sciency, today I bring you some fun sci-fi comics that you can really sink your teeth into. Whether you're heading into the cold dark of winter and want some binge reading, or planning your beach escapes and need some fun entertainment to bring along, I've got you covered. Of course, with epic stories like I’m...

5 months ago • 3 min read

Hello, darlings! Looking fabulous as always. Some time ago, I made a fun discovery on that infamous bird site now known by a single letter: a feed of vintage sci-fi cover art. While I’ve left that particular site behind, I’m happy to say that I can still delight in that stream of vintage art. The originator of that feed now has not only a newsletter, but also a glorious new book for you to delight in: Worlds Beyond Time: Sci-Fi Art of The 1970s. Adam Rowe, our curator, has loving collected...

5 months ago • 2 min read

The Queer Quantum Dispatch Making your world a little less straight. Darlings, how are you? Looking fabulous, as always. I love bringing both history and science into my work. I look back to learn. I imagine forward to inspire. So, in the spirit of looking forward, let’s geek out on a little science today. Two books that I’m reading (yes, darlings, I’m a very polyamorous reader!), both in a scientific vein, inspired awe and some deep thoughts. I’m thinking you might enjoy them, too. Under...

6 months ago • 3 min read
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