ANTEBELLUM BLOG: 03.05.20

So This Is How The World Will End: by Rick Castro 5/8/2020

Today is Tom of Finland’s 100th birthday!

I have a long, rich history with Tom and the Tom of Finland Foundation. Where should I begin? I guess at the beginning…

I was eighteen years old, in San Francisco for the first time, at Folsom for the first time, I went into a little shop with books, amyl and sex toys. In a cardboard box was a stack of small zines called KAKE. Thumbing through I found them sexy, amusing and well-rendered. I even had a bit of a woody! I didn’t realize one person responsible for the ubiquitous Tom drawings in every leather bar I entered. During the late 70s, early 80s, Tom’s art was only seen in leather, BDSM venues. Rarely did you see them in generic WeHo gay scenes, and def not in the hetero scene. BTW, up until last year, I thought KAKE was pronounced CAKE, as in baking, finally being told it’s pronounced COCKY, like a smart ass dick.

Around 1986ish, I was at The One Way, on Hoover St. in Silverlake. The best leather dive bar around, hands down. You were guaranteed a “date” when entering The One Way, at the very least you’d get your dick sucked. On this particular night I was hitting on this hot leather daddy, looking like classic biker babe. Turns out he’s a top, (no surprise) and I wasn’t in the mood to play swords. I was unsuccessful at getting a “date,” but did get his number, (pre-cellphone, handwritten on bar matches). A few months later I had my first photo exhibition at the original Different Light Bookshop in Silverlake Junction. I had a good crowd of friends, boyfriends, girlfriends and kinks. The biker daddy shows up on his motorcycle, parks in front of the shop, looks around quickly, comes up to me and says, “ I’d like to buy one of your photographs, (my first sale!). He then says, “ would you like to have your work published?” (my first book!). That leather daddy turned out to Durk Dehner, president of the Tom of Finland Foundation.

After working together on the project for about a year, my first book- CASTRO, was ready. “Where would you like to have your book signing?”, Durk asked, thinking I would say BookSoup or Different Light. “I wanna have it in your dungeon,” I politely say. “That is not possible, Durk isn’t having it, that’s my private space. I never open it up to the public.”

Somehow I talked him into it. The book signing for CASTRO, (1991) DPR press, (Dehner Public Relations) was on a warm October night. The crowd was diverse, because that’s the type of people I know; gay, straight, bi, male, female, in-between, fetish, fashion, BDSM, conservative, leather, punk, new age, occult, old friends, new friends, boyfriends, girlfriends, dates and tricks. I had my book signing table in the Tom House dungeon. There I sat with a line forming at the top of the stairs. Directly behind me I had a model, (my friend Buck) strung up in Durk’s personal sling, wearing a leather hood, boots and cockring, nothing else. Durk was so taken with my “display,” they became boyfriends for two years.

I met Tom a few times through Durk. I remember being at one of his first exhibitions in Los Angeles at the original Circus of Books in WeHo. I found him to be tall and quiet. I’m told he was six feet. So am I, but my impression was a towering leatherman. He had a large presence, even if he didn’t say much. Many years later when I opened my fetish art gallery, Antebellum Hollywood, I exhibited Tom’s art often. For 2011 solo exhibition, Tom of Finland: Public & Private, I asked Durk for something unexpected from the collection that hadn’t been seen. I curated a collection of Tom’s photos he shot of models, used solely to draw from. Also a collection of “doodles,” collages Tom would put together at the breakfast table of ideas he wanted to eventually draw. I interviewed Durk Dehner for a monthly video segment I hosted, Antebellum Says….

I’ve been exhibiting my photography at the Tom of Finland Art Fair since its inception.

I remember the first fair was at a studio space, (Moguls?) off Hollywood Boulevard circa 1995ish. Two large rooms; the first room was music, demos, and makeshift bar, full of hot, kinky men. The second room were artists displaying their artworks on folding tables. The artists were Miguel Reyes, maybe Hector Silva, and me… a couple others. There were so few people coming to look at art, you could see cobwebs forming on us. Everybody wanted to be in the room with all the partying. Nobody was interested in erotic art, they wanted the real thing. The following year the emphasis was on the art. The space was on Cole Ave in Hollywood, right behind Golds Gym. Two floors of artists displaying their wares, packed with diverse, international artists, and wall to wall customers, art enthusiast and kinks. I did very well, as did many others. I met so many people that are still a part of my life, and the Tom of Finland Foundation.

durk dehner & rick castro @ antebellum hollywood-circa 2007

Years later the art fair moved from Plummer Park to WeHo auditorium on San Vicente. Around 2013ish, Durk & Sharp were appalled that the city council of WeHo was giving them flack about Tom’s Art Fair. They were questioning if the subject matter was the right thing to have; “after all children go to West Hollywood park.” We had a meeting at Tom House and I said, “Fuck WeHo and it’s bogus heteronormative stance. Have the art fair here at Tom House. There is no place like it in the world, and Tom actually lived here. All the energy is here.” The Tom of Finland Art & Culture Festival has been at the Tom House ever since.

During October 2014, Durk said to me, “this year we’re giving you a Artist Lifetime Achievement Award. Where would you like your artist booth?” I felt so honored to be recognized by my peers. Quickly I decided to push my luck and replied, “the dungeon!” After much hemming and hawing, Durk finally said “Ok, but just this once.” I’ve presented Rick Castro’s Dungeon every year until last year when I was in the “Sugar Shack.”

We're living in an uncertain, post-plague, brave new world. I have no idea if, and where the Tom of Finland Art Fair will be held for 2020. I want the Tom House dungeon for the safety, comfort, and kinky energy it provided me for some of the best memories of my life thus far.

Happy 100th Birthday Tom! The granddaddy of it all!

So this is how the world will end.