Nude isn't new--but I love it!

(Sorry, but despite my enthusiasm, no photo will be accompanying this blog posting.)

I began posing nude last week. I do it once a week, for a night class of about fifteen students at my school. I know about half of them from school and the portrait class I posed for last semester. I was more nervous about getting up in front of them and appearing nervous than actually nervous itself. I'll tell you a secret: I have always had this thought that people might be disappointed if they saw the real me. You know how it goes--we all hide our flaws with the clothes we choose to wear.

Well I am flawed. And I love posing nude. It is liberating.

I love that I can get over myself and conquer silly fears.

I love that as much beauty as I find in others, I can find in myself too.

I love that I am a living part of art history. Not only am I learning to be a great painter, inspired by masters such as Rembrandt and Repin, but I am also experiencing a part of what inspired them in their training and work. And posing is giving me a better sense of what the body does, how it feels, and what is going on inside the form that I want to capture in my art.

I love knowing that I am contributing to something beautiful, something wonderful: the development of artists. Not just art, but artists. I get up on the model stand, drop my robe, and within seconds am lost in my head, see myself as "a figure model" like so many that I have drawn. As an artist, you see only lines and curves, value and volume. The nude part of it doesn't even enter my mind.

I chose a difficult pose to hold: standing, with a bent knee and most of my weight on one leg. I did so purposely, wanting to provide something beautiful for the students to work with. Many models request a seated pose, but as an artist I know what it's like to be excited by drawing a standing figure. My foot falls asleep by the end of the night, but I like the challenge. It's worth it.

This class lasts fifteen weeks. But it won't end for me there. I plan to do a lot more of it.