How This Woman Reclaimed Her Sexts

Nikki Peck, known to her over 75,000 Instagram followers as Bonercandy69, is a 25-year-old artist based in Vancouver, BC. Illustrating experiences largely pulled from her own sex life, Peck's images affirm a woman's place in sexual exploration and pleasure. What began as an exercise to reclaim the shame of sending late-night nudes has turned into a body of work that includes not just her own body and sexual experiences, but those of her friends and, as her popularity grows, strangers. Often bringing technology into the work, such as a selfie perspective, a phone screen, or a strap-on selfie-stick, Peck plays on the desire to give and receive images of sex, and in its liberation and unblinking positivity, reject the guilt attached to hitting "send."

Over rosé and chips and salsa, I spoke with Peck about the power of the nude and the politics of sex.

VICE: When did you start doing the kind of illustration work you do now?
Nikki Peck: I started after I moved back to Vancouver after art school in Montreal. I wasn't doing a lot of drawing or painting anymore because I was trying to find a job, so basically there was no practice. When I was little I spent a lot of time drawing females, either fashion or comics. Very immature stuff, but I wanted to go back to that only with some more mature themes, more provocative theme.

Was it then that you started bringing your own sexual experiences in?
After I broke up with my boyfriend in Montreal, he was very caged in and controlling, I really wanted to break free of that. There were so many photos of me online, at parties with my top off, having a good time and being with open people. It became more of a jealousy issue and it became really toxic so I wanted to relive those experiences without feeling the guilt.

So, it was a cathartic practice, more so?
Yeah, after my relationship I was super depressed and anxious and I was asked by a doctor to start illustrating a book on psychological issues, eating disorders, depression. So I started drawing females, female bodies looking in the mirror, themes of self-reflection and kind of self-hate. I showed these to the doctor and he deemed them too provocative, and I was like, "Well this is how it is. These are female bodies that need to be justified and validated and let known that they're beautiful. You're the doctor but I've been through these issues." So I just did a section of the book that was PG-13, which is so fucked.

You're not into PG-13?
No, it's not authentic. It's restrictive and it doesn't touch on the sexual repression that often goes with this kind of depression, these feelings of inadequacy that women have. I was often drawing from when I would be depressed, after a night of partying like, "Fuck, I took so many nudes and sent them to that DJ I wanted to fuck." And I was going through those photos, drawing that. And then my friends started asking me to draw the nudes they were sending to guys.

That makes me think of a piece of yours, where a woman is looking in a hand mirror at herself, where that self-reflection is present.
Yeah, I think probably one of those drawings would have been me because I sent a lot of nudes to a lot of guys that I really regretted. I wanted to go back and relinquish that shame of being like, "Fuck! Why did I do that?" Why the fuck not? Who cares!

For your book, Roses are Red, Boners are Hard , your sister wrote the intro essay, touching a bit on your childhood and you frequently work with her. What is that collaboration like?
She's the only person in my life that understands me, authentically. She understands why I am the way I am. She's been super amazing with understanding what I'm going through and encouraging me being open. She helped me open myself up and not suppress myself. That's why she took me to my first sex shop I've ever been to and was like, "Go masturbate right now!" And after I was like, "Whoa! I came!"

Did you grow up in a sexually open household? Are your parents open?
Yeah, they are. But I mean like I would never be like, "Hey mom I bought a sex toy and fucked myself with it!" [Laughs]

At what point did Bondercandy69 take off on Instagram and you started taking commissions?
Probably in the last year and a half. Before I'd been doing really low-price commissions for my friends. But now I get a ton of commissions and I get the weirdest things.

What's the strangest request to slide into your DMs?
Oh, I get a lot of dick pics. But the first thing that people will usually send to me in my DM is, "Male/female?" because I don't really have my face on that account and I never answer. But the weirdest inquiry was probably "Hey can you draw me and my sister fucking?" And I was like, "Um… I'll think about it." [Laughs]. I mean, I've drawn some weird stuff that hasn't gone online, like one with a famous Hollywood director. That got a little frisky.

But do you welcome people putting in commissions?
Oh for sure. I don't do all of them, because some do get really weird, or like very specific like "Can you draw me and my girlfriend? Me licking her pussy while her ass is in my face." [laughs] Like, that's a lot of work out of my day.

Do the strange asks, like the sister one, ever take a toll on you?
Yeah, sometimes. Really, this is just for females to be empowered. Sometimes I get messages like "What you're doing is really disgusting. I hope you die you filthy cunt."

The sex positivity movement, especially online, is so new to and available to larger audiences that I imagine there are some people who don't know how to respond.
People just aren't exposed to it. So if people come across my work and they're not familiar with an open, sex positive movement, they're going to be offended. Also with queer art, and a lot of my art is queer.

Your group show, "Hands Off My Cuntry" in New York City, was in direct response to Donald Trump's election, and it put your work in a more directly political light. And your drawing with Christy Clark on the stripper pole has also tied your work closely with activism. Do you view your work as political?
For sure. I was doing art not as a political stance but it can be political if you're thinking in the way of queer and women's rights. And I totally understand how my work relates to the issues in the states. Like, who has the rights to female reproductive organs?

Has that changed how you view your practice moving forward?
Yeah, the Christy Clark was a commission for Archive Magazine, and I ended up putting her with the British Columbia strip pole. I did get some backlash from sex workers, being like, "You turned a politician into a sex worker, which is what I do." And that really wasn't my intention.

That's assuming that you think sex work is a shameful thing.
Right, and I don't at all. I think it's fucking awesome.

I did another one of Christy Clark making out with John Horgan. They're kissing sloppily and they have green saliva. It's to imply they're kissing the ass of the Green Party. I wanted that to be very clear. [Laughs]

Explicit.
Exactly.

This interview has been edited for clarity and style.

Alison Sinkewicz is a Vancouver-based writer.