PSYCHOLOGY|WORK
How Getting Naked in Front of People for Work is One of the Best Things I’ve Ever Done
This part-time job (off and on) for 15 years was one of my all-time favorites
I debated whether to use the above photo or the one below as the feature for this story.
I went with the black and white one because it is more accurate (although both are accurate) to my actual experience working as a live figure model for various art classes throughout my life.
Sometimes I modeled with props like that sheet and palm leaf. Oftentimes it was just me and some kind of chair (as shown in the second to last photo in this story).
If you look at the first photo close enough, you can see the imprint on the woman’s skin that was left from her bra.
These are the kinds of details that many visual artists notice, which I love.
Over the years, quite a few people have told me that they have dreamed of posing nude for artists, but I’ve only personally known 2 people who have done it.
One is an artist and the other is her sister.
It was the artist who first got me into nude modeling at 19 years old in an old loft space near downtown Seattle sometime in the late ‘90’s.
Ever since I was a child I’ve always loved painting. The idea of contributing to painters’ visions intrigued me, despite being self-conscious about my body all of my life.
Ironically, it was the experience of standing in the middle of a room full of 25 or so artists, all painting, drawing and sketching (amidst drinking beer and smoking pot), that began this amazing transformation.
During my 10–15 minute breaks, I would walk around the room looking at what people created.
I was really nervous at first.
My thighs were bigger than average and I didn’t have a traditional “hour glass figure”, even though I was in pretty good physical condition then.
My breasts weren’t perky and they had stretch marks, along with my hips.
Enough people had complimented me to the point where I accepted that I was “societally pretty”, but I didn’t feel like I was beautiful.
After seeing what those artists drew using me as a model, I felt beautiful- and free!
None of them were trying to draw me exactly as I looked.
They used me as a “template” from which to create their own imaginings.
It was magical.
The curves I had in places that I wish I did not were admired and appreciated by these creative beings.
Once I began holding some of the yoga and dance poses I knew, it became this symbiotic experience of mutual admiration.
I remember one guy used charcoal to draw simple outlines of my body onto pages of a book filled with words.
He gave me some of them and I still have them taped inside one of my journals to this day.
***When I first published this story, I didn’t think I had any drawings left from this night, but I do!?
I’m what I consider an “extroverted introvert”. I get along very well with most people, but prefer to spend my time alone or one on one with people.
Becoming a nude model allowed me to:
- be paid relatively well (usually $15- $30/hr for 3- 8 hours)
- see incredible works of art by artists of all ages and stages
- get excellent artistic guidance from the professors who taught classes at these universities where I modeled.
- be inspired by these works of art
- meet a close friend of mine who is an artist and fabulous woman
- feel that sense of freedom and liberation from negative judgment every single time I took off my clothes in front of a room full of strangers and stepped on that platform to model
***The friend I met while modeling, emailed me the following after she read this story.
Models have always been very important to me, I feel sym- pathetic and sensitive to them in what is a delicate situation. For sure it is not about drawing them, that person is just the vehicle for study and inspiration. I have always drawn from the life model and started many a group since I was 25. And made valuable friendships besides ours. I hate being without the model to draw from. I read somewhere that Rodin would have many nudes walking around his studio. That makes total sense given his consummate drawing and sculptures.”
-M. A., 67-year-old sculptor and painter
It’s been almost 10 years since I stopped working as a figure model. It became less appealing as I began earning more money and had more demands on my time.
However, I’m extremely grateful for the experiences and the art work that I’ve collected as a result.
There are no words I can say that can fully convey what it means to me to have done this.
Who knows….maybe I will again, someday.
Here are a few more stories by me:
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