TOM  OF  FINLAND  FOUNDATION

Tips Of The Hat And Odds & Ends:

Tom of Finland Foundation was proud to be part of this year’s LGBT Pride Festival in Pasadena. The schedule included a culinary experience from Celebrity Cruises; a classic car and motorcycle show; a Los Angeles countywide art experience, “The Big Draw LA“; Pasadena Library family activities; an authors’ forum; The LA Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence bingo; a wine tasting of Barefoot Wines; and an art show from ToFF including artists artists Hector Silva and Michael Kirwan, facilitated by the LA Band of Brothers who helped create the adult area. Plan on being a part of next year’s San Gabriel Valley Pride!

Patrick Califia, Author

October is LGBT History Month! Thirty-one days and 31 icons. Each day another person is highlighted with a biography, photos, videos and more. On the 18th, Tom of Finland is the man of the day! Where are we coming from? Where are we going? LGBT History Month Website

The Artist Tom of Finland:
His Story To Be Told On Film
As Masterfully As He Drew

Tom Of Finland's Perfection from 1990

The Tom of Finland Foundation, based in Los Angeles, CA announced that Helsinki-filmi, the innovative Finnish production company, has asked it to do a feature about Tom of Finland. Helsinki-filmi has demonstrated enormous respect for the artist who started the Foundation that bears his name.

The Helsinki-filmi biopic will be the first feature-length portrait of Tom of Finland’s influential life and career, and everyone involved has committed to crafting it the way that would make Tom proud.

“Every project we’ve seen from this esteemed company has consistently impressed us with its creativity. The production team has a full grasp of the layers of the subject matter they take on,” says Durk Dehner, president and cofounder of Tom of Finland Foundation.

Tom’s real name is Touko Laaksonen, he was born on May 8th, 1920 and “May” in Finnish is “Toukokuu.” He lived and worked in Helsinki and later Los Angeles. He died in 1991 and was involved in two documentaries made about him during his lifetime (Boots, Biceps and Bulges: The Life and Works of Tom of Finland, 1988 and Daddy and the Muscle Academy, 1991).

From the perspective of art historians, Tom of Finland’s homo-erotic work has had an effect on global culture unmatched by that of virtually any other artist: influencing lifestyle, political tolerance, music, design, fashion and art. Tom’s work has a defining impact on the way Homosexuals throughout the world are perceived and more importantly, how they perceive themselves.

Producer Aleksi Bardy has won awards at the Brussels International Film Festival and the Jussi Awards, and has teamed with acclaimed and much-admired director Dome Karukoski for the new biopic on Tom of Finland. The artist and his work have always been appreciated by a grass-roots audience. “Now, with Helsinki-filmi collaboration, Tom’s messages of equality and freedom will be shared with even wider audiences,” says Dehner.

by David Rhodes

Continued on TOM's Blog

Tom of Finland:
A Film About Liberation

TOM OF FINLAND (Touko Laaksonen, Finnish, 1920 – 1991),
Untitled, 1961, Graphite on paper,
Tom of Finland Foundation Permanent Collection #61.11,
© 1961 Tom of Finland Foundation

Dome Karukoski, director of the newly-announced Tom of Finland biopic, sees an explosion of inspiration in the artist’s erotic works.

Karukoski’s long birth name — Thomas August George — sounded odd to his classmates in Finland, where his American father and British mother raised him. Coupled with his Anglo accent, this moniker brought years of childhood ridicule, but eventually earned him the nickname he now prefers to use.

“When I was 12, the girls trash-talked the name ‘Dome’ from Thomas, but I took part,” Karukoski explains, whose first name ends on an upward lilt, as in “Dom-e,” rather than the flat-sounding shape “dome.” “It became part of my identity, because when you have a nickname, you’re accepted. I wasn’t so bullied anymore.”

The fact that Karukoski embraced and celebrated his difference is analogous to the story of another Finnish man, Touko Laaksonen, the artist best known as Tom of Finland and who is the subject of the 36-year-old filmmaker’s first English-language feature. [Not to be confused with any unauthorized film.]

A Finnish advertising artist who fought heroically for his country during World War II, Touko Laaksonen lived most of his early life in the closet. “He had a wonderful time being homosexual during wartime, because the city was blackened and, even though homosexuality was illegal, people would look through their fingers,” Karukoski says of the “every man needs a hand” culture that arises in wartime. “But then, after the war, when every man wasn’t needed anymore, he had to hide himself again.”

by Andrew Belonsky

Continued on TOM's Blog

Tom of Finland
Blank Book

Now you can write down your thoughts in your own TOM’s notebook!

From Bruno Gmünder

TOM's Foundation
Time To Renew? Time To Join!

TOM OF FINLAND (Touko Laaksonen, Finnish, 1920 – 1991)
Untitled (Enhanced detail from “Pleasure Park”), 1977,
Pen & ink on paper, © 1977 Tom of Finland Foundation

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of the Picture

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It is also a great time to join TOM’s Foundation, or make a tax-deductible donation of any amount.

2013 is proving to be a very productive year for Tom of Finland Foundation (ToFF) and we owe it to your passionate support. Over the years we remain the foremost erotic art organization across the globe. Without your contribution we could not make the future of the Foundation possible and appreciate your continued support.

Your membership allows us to maintain a commitment to protect, preserve, and promote erotic art.

Catch up on some "insider details" on TOM's blog. We've been busy! And there's so much more to do.

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