Phone Sex

I have a few friends with whom I engage in what we lovingly refer to as "phone sex". No, not that kind; but art phone sex. When we come across some great art that we are dying to share with one another, we send a photo or a link, comment back and forth, and jump on the phone to look at pictures together - you know, the next best thing to being there!

It is not that we are looking for approval from one another. Once upon a time that might have been the case: "Should I buy this?" and "What do you think?" have given way to, "Look at this cool thing I've fallen in love with" or "Boy, this isn't my taste but I think it has your name all over it".

Take this rolling head, for instance, by Bruce Chapin. I met Bruce at the Smithsonian Craft Show last month and instantly was attracted ( OK, I admit it, to him, and) to his work. After examining each and every piece, and determining jointly that he was not about to leave his wife and run off with me, I knew that while I was not going home with Bruce, I could not go home without this rolling head. It just totally spoke to me. Then I sent the photo to one of my best friends in California along with a link to Bruce's site. Within moments, my phone was ringing and the phone sex began. The conversation was excited, intimate, and spontaneous. She wanted me to check out other pieces and describe them to her, inch by inch, crevice by crevice. See why we call it phone sex?

This whole experience wouldn't be possible without camera phones and the Internet. But it also wouldn't be possible without having reached a point in life where my friends and I are confident about our likes and dislikes, and equally confident about expressing them. Phone sex, the literal kind, is all about knowing what turns someone on and simulating that over the phone. Sounds fun, right? Art phone sex is not so different and differently provocative. And, as with the wearing of cowboy boots at a certain age, has a hefty dose of , "This is what I like and how I like it - take it or leave it".