The Art of Kissing

Today is International Kissing Day, so let’s talk about kisses. Of course, do practice them, too, as much as possible. 😇️

First of all, Kissing and Kissing Day are not only for two people in love, of course. Friends kiss, siblings kiss, parents and their children kiss… But, you know me. I can’t but focus on lover’s kisses.

For me, kissing is not as simple as lips meeting lips, or other parts of one’s beloved’s body. It’s a way for the souls to communicate, without words and quite intimately. A way to say, “I love you”, “I care for you”, “I am yours”, or something similar. Because I am an odd Bunny, I consider kissing more intimate than penetration. 🤷‍♂️️

Whether they are tender, passionate, lustful (as long as I can see this lust as deeper than carnal attraction) I’ve found kisses inspiring since… as early as I remember. And, naturally, they play an important role in my writing.

“Duh! You are writing romance, Yorgos!”

Yes, true. But think it the other way around. If I didn’t find love – the feeling and the expression of it – inspiring, would I write (mostly) romance?

Anyway, similarly to writing, from when I managed to start drawing faces (barely) good enough, the kiss became one of my main subjects. Not only mouth to mouth kiss, but also kiss on other parts of the body, including, but no limited to my favourite: dick.

The Kiss as a Universal Symbol of Love

Enough with my blabbering. Let’s (pretend to) get a bit more serious! 😇️

Ok! “Universal” might be an exaggeration. I haven’t been in any other planet, nor have I ever seen extraterrestrials kissing – or at all, actually – but, on earth, that’s pretty much, true.

From ancient times to today, the kiss has been present, as a symbol of love, in most, if not all, places of the world, as art showcases. Even during the Middle Ages, although rarer, the lover’s kiss didn’t disappear from art.

What makes us want to kiss the ones we love? I don’t know. What I know is that it is in human nature, and that it is a delightful act.

Here are some – very few – kisses from famous artists of the 20^th century, without comments because art speaks to each of us differently:

• The Kiss (1907-1908) by Gustav Klimt

• The Kiss (1889) by Auguste Rodin – Originally titled “The Kiss of the Eternal Spring”

• The Kiss (1907) by Edvard Munch

• The Kiss (1928) by Pablo Picasso

The links, lead to Wikipedia’s pages of that kiss, with the exception of the last one which will take you to PabloPicasso.org’s page of the painting.

As I said, these are just a few examples for a start. There are plenty of kisses in art, and I’m sure you can easily find as many as you want, of different styles and mediums. Including, of course, photography.

The Kiss in My Art

This is my blog post, so allow me some self-advertisement 😇️😋️😁️

As I said, I (try to) draw and paint kisses often, but I’ll only feature one here. It’s not a very recent one. In fact I did this in late 2021, so you might have seen this on Twitter already. Nonetheless it is one of my favourite kisses. It’s a pencil drawing, as you probably have figured out right away. Of an a little unusual technique.

The light tones were created by applying graphite powder, instead of using a pencil. As this was one of my first attempts of this technique and it ended up quite well, it gave me another reason to be happy with it, and to love this drawing.

I’ll stop here with this post. Enjoy this International Kissing Day, in any way that suits you. Go out and watch couples kissing in the streets , if you enjoy that even half as much as I do. If you are a couple, go out and kiss for the rest of us to enjoy the view (preferably where I can see you 😜️). Or, well, just be killjoys and kiss your beloved behind closed doors.

Share a kiss that inspired you – artistic inspiration, or of any other kind. It can be a painting, a sculpture, a movie scene, a real life experience, or whatever else. Be warned, though, it might end up in one of my stories.

Have fun, be happy, and kiss a lot!

😘️😘️😘️😘️😘️

💖️💖️💖️💖️💖️

Yorgos KC