Too hot for Eyedrum?

Are the bad boys and girls of Eyedrum becoming white-gloved and easily flustered Establishment-types?

Two months ago, Skip Williamson, a noted local countercultural cartoonist who has worked with R. Crumb and Playboy, volunteered his talents to paint a sign — which has evolved into a mural — on the exterior wall of Eyedrum’s alternative arts space on MLK Drive. He began work on the piece in April.

Williamson is well known for what he calls “caustic” imagery that satirizes both right- and left-wing excesses.

The focal point of the mural is an eyeball playing a drum, but the mural lacked one crucial element, according to Eyedrum executive director Robert Cheatham and board member/ community relations liaison Stan Woodward.

“Stan and Robert would come and watch me do my thing and they said, ‘Where’s the sex in this?’” laughs Williamson. “So we decided that when I was finished with this panel of the mural, I’d throw some sexual content in behind the eyeball.”

The additions included six drawings of various carnal exchanges including dog sex, a naked woman held like an aspirin on a demon’s tongue and other various and sundry naughty bits.

After consulting with Eyedrum’s board members, Woodward sent Williams an e-mail June 24 asking the artist “not to proceed until the discussion is complete. We don’t intend to censor your work but must consider the needs of our visitors, who include people of all ages and sensibilities.”

Mellow child of the ’60s that he is, Williamson harbors no ill-will toward the suddenly squeamish and bipolar Eyedrum crew.

“I’m really glad to be associated with Eyedrum,” says Williamson. “These people are my friends and I’m not angry about it.”

Eyedrum’s board members have since worked out an informal agreement with Williamson after a June 29 meeting. Two of the six naughty illustrations can remain: a reference to Pieter Bruegel’s painting “Envy” of a man and a woman copulating next to a jealous demon, as well as the depiction of mating dogs — a political victory for lascivious mutts everywhere.