“Say wh-aaat? Condoms you say…?”

A couple of months back, a friend sent me a link for an art competition in Vancouver – he thought it might be perfect for me. It was.

The contest asked for an art piece to be used in conjunction for an upcoming safe-sex campaign, it had to be ‘sex-positive’ and use religious imagery.

Tall order. And...I love new challenges, and aside for the paintings, I wanted to try out new art forms – I decided to go digital with this.

And this past weekend, October 31, I received an email at 2am…

“…Dear Tina,
Congratulations, your entry has placed THIRD in the YVR Sisters Art Contest! We thank you very much for your entry, and are thrilled to have your art on the covers of our upcoming condom packages... “

What an incredible feeling! Not only did my digital piece placed 3^rd but it will be used in their condom packages as part of the “We Care Red Ribbon World AIDS Day Celebration.”

Totally Godsmacked… :)

So, below is the 3rd winning digital design. 

Many of the images used has specific and particular meanings. Before you scroll down pass the image, to continue reading what I meant it to be - what does the below image mean to you? What does it say to you? Just a fun, cheeky poster, or something with  deeper meaning?

"Come Dressed For The Party" (Digital)


Besides the obvious imagery and text you see, the center cherry contains a very subtle, loosely based 'sacred heart' with a bite-shaped as it 'bleeds' a cross to mimic the shadow cast by the condom hanging off the cherry stem - and in the middle, a question mark.  

Aside from creating a 'fun sex-positive' design, I wanted to convey a very important statement, safe-sex SHOULD over-shadow any religion dogma, and not vice versa.

Okay. Putting some serious away for now....... 

HEY, I'm gonna be on a condom package yo'! 

T