Your piece on nude models made me think …
Your article about the art workshop reminded me about their need for models this fall. They sent out flyers to the various department buildings. Now they are advertising through you article for artists to add to their skills. I chuckled to myself when I saw it.
It was summer of 2006 when the art department had scheduled a life drawing class, one for fall and one for spring. They advertised for nude models with flyers all over. Just for a lark I thought I would volunteer, thinking there would be so many applicants that I might not even get called. But I was wrong they needed me I was told.
The total number used that fall was four, three men and one woman. As far as the 20 students they were an equal balance of men to women. In the course of the semester I was called seven times. I did various quick one minute poses then poses for twenty minutes. nude until near the end of the semester a sheet was used to simulate a roman toga for the shading, ripples and folds.
Also some sitting poses. From back feed I was told one of the other male models was a young healthy muscular black man and he was able to do and hold poses that I couldn’t. The girl had some extra padding but volunteered twice. The young teen boy posed shirtless but with his pants on. He did bare it all one time in the spring. The Art Department offers this course only once every three or four years. Undergraduate art students must register for this class sometime in their degree plan before graduating.
It’s the same in most art programs at any Texas University. I was needed in the Spring (2007). I got a call from Robert Bird who was the instructor. I was to model again for a new class of coed students. They had a balance of about 10 girls to 11 guys. But as luck would have it, only two males and one girl volunteered to pose. It was I and the bashful nineteen year old boy who were the only males. The girl had scheduling problems and she finally did it once. The boy bared it all one time and never came back again, even when he was scheduled.
Again I ended up being the only macho guy that helped the students get live drawing as I moved into different poses for the whole semester. Standing naked in a large room with high ceilings near the end of the fall semester one can get chilly. The instructor provided a floor heater to keep the goose bumps off I was surprised by a phone call one day around twelve O’clock early this semester.
I was asked if I would volunteer to model that afternoon for the workshop since a conflict of scheduling caused a cancelation and I was needed. I said I would but I have a class on Wednesday. They called since I was on their active modeling list. I said I could do it on Thursdays and so said the original model. Thus they changed the workshop that next week and it has been working fine on Thursdays I hear.
Well they scheduled me for the next Thursday and I worked from 2 till 430. I haven’t been called back. What caught my eye was the title of your article. I have a folder of stories that other models have gone through with their first experiences of posing in the buff. Their articles have titles like: “Taking it all off for art’s sake;” “Nude models portray art of assurance;” “Naked and the Dread;” “Models ‘expose’ students to nude art. ” etc.
After a whole year, where were all those fellows with their great testosterone attitude? Why are they so timid? What I have found is that modeling for universities do not pay enough for professional models to apply. For students who need extra money the amount paid is welcomed. It seems that the pool of volunteers have dwindled in many places.
News flash England “Students at Warwickshire College are suffering from a shortage of nude models.” “University of Maryland (in 2005) have too few nude models.” “John Winslow a 45 year old lawyer from Washington was the center of attention but he wasn’t arguing a case in front of a jury. Instead, 30 art students watched intently as he stood stark naked and posed. Winslow is one of just a few nude models in the universities drawing classes – a shrinking group of people willing to bare it all for the sake of art.”
My suggestion would be to require each art students as they apply for the life drawing classes to stir up some friends of theirs to volunteer al least one time, and that would take care of the lack Oh I forgot to tell you I am 76 years old. I am a graduate student.
Tom Fenimore
Graduate Student