I am A.J Vitaro, the designer of The Tantra Chair®. I was born into a family full of artists. Both of my grandfathers were extremely talented. My grandfather on my father’s side was a great architect. He even worked on Frank Lloyd Wright’s infamous “Falling Water” home. My maternal grandfather was a creative cartoonist. His artwork always brought me so much joy and laughter. My mother is also an artist who is very skilled in charcoal drawing.
I was inspired by the female form at a very young age. I began expressing this inspiration through various artistic mediums. When I was in third grade, I was sent home from Catholic school for sketching a female nude during class. I was profoundly influenced by the works of Michael Angelo and I was trying to emulate his style. Fortunately, my parents saw the beauty in this drawing and encouraged me to keep creating despite others’ perspectives.
My artistic medium evolved into clay sculpture. My passion for clay sculpture evolved into a pure love of stone sculpture which I continue to enjoy to this day.
I studied Tantra and Zen Buddhism as a young adult. Meditation practice is the heart and soul of Zen Buddhism. Anyone who has tried to sit in meditation for long periods of time knows how painful it can be for the body. I was motivated to design a chair for meditation that could help my friends and I maintain a comfortable posture during meditation.
Friends and fellow meditators became so excited about the comfort levels that my chair designs were providing and as a result, they wanted one for themselves! I saw a great opportunity to use this creativity to help people meditate more comfortably. I, along with my best friend, founded ZEN BY DESIGN in 2001.
Shortly thereafter, I developed The Tantra Chair design with the intention of revolutionizing the lovemaking experience. I even designed it in the likeness of the female form. I was inspired by the idea of freeing the female to move in ways that she desired. The Divine Feminine has been so suppressed by limited perspectives throughout our history. I longed for people to take the art of making love more seriously. I hoped to bring more presence, comfort, creativity and joy to every relationship with the help of The Tantra Chair®.
“There are many aspects of our world that humanity, as a collective consciousness, can improve upon but there is one place to start in my humble opinion. We must free the feminine divine energy that has been suppressed by dogmatic principles for thousands of years. It’s time that we bring love, heart, light and balance back to this paradigm.” – A.J Vitaro
