More Than Gold: The World of My Sensual Icons
When the world told me to tone it down, I chose to turn it up
Let’s be honest — this post might make you uncomfortable.
Not because it’s inappropriate,
but because it touches something raw.
Something we’ve learned to avoid.
To silence.
To cover up.
So I’ll ask you directly:
Do you dare to truly see what we’ve been taught to look away from?
Even now, I know many will scroll past this.
Or read it in silence.
Because reacting to this…
might say something about you.
But that’s exactly why I make Forbidden Art.
I’m Edwin — painter, photographer, alchemist.
For years I lived in a world of control, shame, and rules.
Not just as a person,
but as a man,
an artist,
a child raised in a religious frame.
I was told that beauty is dangerous.
That certain things must be hidden.
That modesty is virtue.
Especially when it comes to the feminine.
But what if that which is hidden…
isn’t dangerous at all —
just powerful?
My first experience in a sauna changed everything.
I entered with discomfort.
Uneasy. Embarrassed.
I felt like I was doing something wrong.
But sitting there — without layers, without armor —
something inside me fell silent.
I saw others as they were.
And for the first time, I saw myself:
unprotected, yes —
but not weak.
Present. Real.
Alive.
And I realized:
our skin is not something to hide.
It’s the outermost layer of who we are.
And it is absurd that we’ve learned to feel shame for that.
Forbidden Art isn’t provocative.
It’s liberating.
In my work, I don’t show people to be looked at.
I show them to be seen.
Fully.
Not as objects,
but as whole, sovereign beings.
I paint women as I see them:
as presence in form.
As power beneath the surface.
As souls who never asked to be stared at —
but long to be witnessed.
At exhibitions, I noticed something surprising.
I thought I had already let go of shame.
But again and again, I saw it:
the tension in the room.
The silence.
The awkward smiles.
The averted eyes.
Apparently, showing someone in their fullness —
without hiding —
is still a radical act.
Apparently, visibility is a threat.
And so I keep painting.
I work with age-old techniques and natural materials —
egg, linen, oil, pigment, light.
But the true alchemy happens in the moment of meeting.
When the model dares to be seen,
and I dare to see.
That moment is sacred.
That moment is what I chase.
Because that is where transformation lives.
🩶 Thank you for reading this.
If it moves you, you are welcome.
If it makes you curious — even more so.
And if you ever long to be seen as you truly are…
You know where to find me.
Edwin IJpeij
Artist & Inventor — Creating Forbidden Art
