part of Create Art "Under the Influence"
download file My next volunteer was a heterosexual female friend of mine. We've known each other for years; I was in her wedding. But I do not remember ever hanging out together unclothed before. She was interested in doing this as an experience to reduce unnecessary self-consciousness. I asked whether it would be more comfortable if we were both nude, so that the situation would be more egalitarian, or if that would make it weirder. She decided that it would seem more strange to have the artist be unclothed. We did a mix of poses with the model looking at or away from the artist, standing, sitting, and laying. Showing her the drawings, she thought that the eyebrows and knees looked most like her. She also noted that she had no idea what she looked like from the back, since that's not an angle that she views in the mirror at all. After a few initial moments of slightly awkward how-are-we-going-to-do-this in the beginning, it seemed totally normal. Mostly she thought the experience was like some on-stage theater performances where the actors need to freeze in a position and distract themselves mentally by making lists or singing songs in their head, in order to not fidget or look around. She was conscious of trying to keep her facial expression constant (though for the level of detail in these sketches, that wasn't too critical). We talked about how one of the nice things about being older was being less self-conscious and embarrassed, compared to being in middle school or high school, and always feeling like you look funny. |