WORDS: LYDIA LaVEY - Club International

Many people go to their graves having done nothing their hearts desired. But the lucky few see the signs of what they"re destined to do from early on, and with a blinding clarity. Take fetish art impressario Alan Daniels: when, under the glare of the interrogator's spotlight. he's quizzed as to what his first ever drawing was. Alan confesses, 'Probably a stick figure wearing high heels," Hmmm--the guy's obviously one of those Lucky fuck's.

Although now resident in sunny Southern California, Alan started out as a self-professed feral child raised in a working class environment in Stockport in the north of England. Having always hankered after a career in art, Alan enrolled in art school with a plan. Well, some kind of a plan, at any rate: "Study a subject you can never make a living at - mine was environmental installation sculpture - have fun, leave college with a degree, then get really scared about what the hell you' re going to do."

Alan combated his fears by taking the bohemian route and traveling throughout Europe for way too many years, doing installation and performance art. On his return to England, however, even though he was unwilling to work for anybody else, he realized the necessity of getting a job. A lucky break saw him getting introduced to illustration by a company who helped mold his work into a viable commercial proposition. Focusing on his fascination with cars and girls, his career as an airbrush illustrator took off, and Alan found himself in demand from a whole slew of monthly glossies. Then, out of creative as well as commercial considerations, science fiction became an important influence, so he created sci-fi pin-up babes alongside his regular commercial artwork.

Alan was happy for thes pin-ups to appear in adult mags for several years because, he explains, "The girls give me control of the paintings, as against the commercial work that's heavily dictated by the client." This happy situation lasted, "Untill magazines started to want a gynecological approach to the images, [which was the] end of painting girls for a while."
Alan's reluctance to paint girls n all their split-beaver glory led him to concentrate on the fantasy/fetish side of his imagination. "I used to paint airbrushed hyperrealism, [but] now I no longer feel a need for that," he reveals. "It's more of a quest for body jewelry and ritual; what I consider looks good. I really do paint them for me, and nudity doesn't interest me. Neither does the graphic display of sex - it's what you don't see."

Alan finds the inspiration for his art in his dreams. "My paintings are my dreams," he extols. "My dreams aren't erotic, they're reality; it's here that the ladies demand to be ut on paper. But physically they don't affect me, they merely nag to be let loose. I'm a conduit for their presence."

Oh yeah - presence. That's something Alan's girls have in spades. Because no matter how techno-futuristic he paints' em, Alan's figures are recognizably human; palpably feminine. His work has more in common with the men's magazine pin-up tradition than you'd initially think. Think about it: this is what the proverbial girl next door could well look like the day after tomorrow.

Driven to paint by the occupants of his dreams, art maestro Alan characterizes his art as "Turbo-techno erotic fetish paintings. " He describes himself, however, in somewhat less ornate language: "A shy and quiet depressive with a very large sneeze."
Noisy nose aside, you'd never consider Alan's in-your-face fetish art to be the work of someone who considers himself shy. But that's why these truly inspired artists are indeed the luckiest fucks alive - they get to create their own worlds.