July 8, 2012

June 25 -
July 1, 2012

June 24 -
July 15, 2012

June 28 -
July 1, 2012

June 16 - 24, 2012

July 5 - 14, 2012

ToFF engayged with a lot of glorious people at LA PRIDE 2012 and were grateful for the opportunity to be part of Erotic City.

We are very grateful for all of our friends – the Artists -
who share their work with so many, Miguel Angel Reyes, Jay Lawton, Hector Silva, Ethan Maxx and Lalo Ugalde.

We are 100% indebted to our friends – our Volunteers – who make doing all this a joy, Devin, Eddie, Görkem, Jake, Josh, Marcus and Tom. And the Models, our inspiration, thank you, each of you including Chris, Dan, Diego, Jordon, Marcos and Mason.

TOM’s Bar 2012 recap.

Everybody made it a perfect day for Tom. Thanks to all the Volunteers that made it happen, our Sponsors for who made it fun, and to everyone who come to this great event at Faultline Bar to celebrate Daddy’s Day for Tom of Finland, June 17th, 2012. Special kudos to Shawn Farnsworth of the Faultline, SOLD OUT Clothing and Instigator Magazine.

I wanted to show Gays they can feel happy together. -TOM

Click to see a gallery of photos taken by Benno Sebastian.

Click to see a video of the events taken by Alexsander Freitas.

Homotopia has been awarded funding to create three major internation projects in Russia, Sweden and Finland.

• Homotopia & Tom of Finland Foundation’s hugely successful Tom of Finland Retrospective to tour to Kulturhuset Stockholm Summer 2012.
• Homotopia & Tom of Finland Foundation to create Tom of Finland archive & heritage project in Turku.
• Homotopia to develop “Art As Social Change” in St. Petersburg, Russia in September 2012.

Homotopia has been instrumental in securing funding to begin work on the personal archive of Tom of Finland. The Wäinö Aaltonen Museum of Art & Åbo Akademi Library, City Of Turku want to gather permanent collections of works & private ephemera by Tom of Finland and material related to the artist in Turku. The project starts later this month and will develop into a large scale archive and heritage program documenting Tom’s early life in Finland including the Winter War.

Homotopia will also be developing a new human rights led project “Art As Social Change” which will open in St. Petersburg, Russia later in the year. The exhibition will chronicle the emergence of Gay rights movement in the UK and Europe through photographs, testimonies and film. St. Petersburg is twinned with Turku and will be led by the Finnish Consulate and Homotopia.

Homotopia is supported by Liverpool City Council and is also a National Portfolio Arts Council England and is the only LGBT arts and cultural organization in the North of England.

Scott O’Hara (October 16, 1961 – February 18, 1998) was an American pornographic performer, author, poet, editor and publisher. Rising to prominence during the mid 1980s for his work in such gay adult films as Winner Takes All, Ramcharger, The Other Side Of Aspen 2, Below The Belt and In Your Wildest Dreams,

O’Hara went on to write three books, Do It Yourself Piston Polishing (for Non-Mechanics), Autopornography: A Memoir of Life in the Lust Lane, and Rarely Pure and Never Simple: Selected Essays of Scott O’Hara, as well as editing and publishing the quarterly men’s journal, Steam.

A performer, publisher, poet and patron, Scott O’Hara donated over 500 works to the ToFF’s permanent collection and was the Foundation’s first Lifetime Member.

LIFETIME MEMBERS, with a $2,500 one-time donation, receive:

• A personalized clear resin obelisk, specially commissioned by the Foundation, inscribed with their name.
• Their name engraved on a marble pedestal in TOM House that honors major contributors to ToFF.
• A copy of Taschen’s TOM OF FINLAND XXL.
• A ToFF patched designed by TOM, a TOM T-shirt, and TOM mug.

Please consider the benefits of LIFETIME MEMBERSHIP. Write us!

Here’s a quick and easy way to say, “YES, I support the erotic arts”. You determine the exact amount of your gift. The Foundation is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) Educational Archive, so your donation is deductible to the extent allowed by law.

Tom of Finland – My Hero: The mention of “Tom of Finland” produces smiles, ears at attention. Tom of Finland is what we all wish we could be, the man all women wish they could meet.

Tom of Finland is the uberman, fantastic in all ways. He is the embodiment of all things favorable in life. Tom personifies nature and exemplifies reasonable thought.

Tom of Finland knew his own mission and the purpose of his drawings. As with most Finns, he spoke using few words and was to the point:

With purpose I wanted to influence Gays, to change their opinion of themselves. I also wanted to influence Straight people so they could understand and accept the beauty and rights that Gay people should have.

I wanted to show Gays they can feel happy together. I wanted to tell them they have a right to enjoy life in their way – Gays being together feeling happy, being proud of who they are.

It wasn’t until he was in his 60s that Tom realized how powerfully his messages had been received by the world.

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