DEWEY ARSEE

Despite the vague haze of booze and celebration, there is one distinctly memorable thing about last new Year’s eve: the handsome mugs offered in the east Village apartment of the party host, singer/songwriter Justin Vivian Bond. What made these crafty, tactile, rugged receptacles so unusual wasn’t that the champagne was served in them, but rather their decoration, which consisted of children’s-story-like motifs depicting all kinds of sexual debauchery: full-on orgy scenes, a young man being sodomized by the universe, two men making love in a barn while a goat looked on.... What would usually have read as hardcore pornography all of a sudden took on an innocent, dreamy touch. the artist who created these unique pieces is San Francisco-based ceramicist Dewey Arsee, a friend of Bond’s. Arsee says the main motivation behind making them is to have fun. Given their titillating themes, that’s easy to imagine. While his collection of mugs features only homoerotic imagery, Arsee adorns his plate series with a more polysexual palette (pussy plate, anyone?). Besides being quite the conversation piece, all of his products are made of high- fired stone wear and are thus highly durable: food-, dishwasher-, and microwave- safe. And Arsee is always open to discussing custom orders and ideas.