Artist creates new batch of 'porn for the blind'
Lisa J. Murphy, known for nude, 3D pictures of men and women accompanied by braille descriptions, releases a new series of images.
Toronto artist Lisa J. Murphy believes we live in a highly sexualized world that often leaves the visually impaired behind. So she decided awhile ago to do something about it.
Last year, Murphy's book "Tactile Mind," which featured several nude, 3D pictures of men and women along with braille descriptions, gained new life in the media, two years after its release. Last week, the artist released four new images, including one featuring a woman's legs in stiletto shoes, as well as "a photograph of a woman's behind...wearing soft pink" panties.
The original book comes with the hefty price of $225, and the new set of images, titled "Tactile Atelier Bookmark," cost $100, according to Murphy's Web site. In an interview with AOL News, she says the process of creating the images takes up to 50 hours for each, and therefore the high price tag for the unusual art--or porn, depending on your point of view--is justifiable.
"I took photographs of my friends in lingerie, blew up the images, and hand-sculpted them into clay," Murphy told AOL News. "Then I made thermoform copies. I ran the plastic myself through my thermoform machine at home, so each one took awhile to make."
The hardest of the four images in her latest batch of creations, Murphy said, was the female behind.
"The butt was really hard to sculpt. I wanted to get it nice and even and give it a feminine softness so it would actually feel like a woman's butt. It took me days to sculpt all the curves right, but I'm told it does feel like a woman's butt in a G-string," she said.
In an interview last year with the daily Toronto Sun, Murphy said many people have bought her books and images as art objects, and most buyers have been sighted patrons.
As for whether it's art or porn, "it depends on your eye," she said.
The four new images are supposed to be a placeholder of sorts while Murphy works on a new book of 3D nudes, according to Murphy's interview with the Sun.
"(The next book will) be much more erotic...with couples," Murphy said.
This story originally appeared on CBSNews.com.