I Got Naked for Money: Adventures in art modeling

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I Got Naked for Money: Adventures in art modeling

POSTED: Thursday, April 15, 2010, 4:29 PM

Filed Under: Arts

Not me, just some lady Picasso knew.

So I meet this guy — tattooed, pierced, artist-type — while I'm doing an interview with a boutique owner. He mentions that he's involved with a weekly drawing class a friend of his runs out of his apartment. I mention that sometimes I pose for art classes. And then we fall madly in love and ride off into the sunset together. No, wait. That's someone else's life. What actually happens is I found out he runs the Bell #3 Figure Drawing Class — an informal get together where artists and amateurs alike can hone their skills using a real-life model without springing for their own naked lady (aka, me). We exchange contact information and then a couple weeks later I follow his directions to an anonymous apartment in Northern Liberties. As I wait for the bus, I call up my parents and tell them what I'm up to. "Emily, are you sure this is, you know, safe?" My mom asks nervously. What, meeting a random guy and agreeing to get naked for him and a group of his friends? When has a situation like that ever gone wrong? Once I get to the apartment, I have to ring the doorbell (bell #3) for someone to come let me in. Then I'm led upstairs into a high-ceilinged, studio apartment with its very own platform for me to pose on. A small group of men are lounging around the space, drinking beer and talking shit. They hospitably offer me a beer, or whatever, but I chose to sit primly in a corner waiting for the cue for me to either get naked and/ or be axe-murdered then have my kidney removed in a bathtub. For the sake of full disclosure, I have done this before, this getting naked in front of group of strangers thing (and not just for my escapades in 'The Pasty Postulant'). I graduated into a recession, after all, and as a girl who determinedly went to an expensive, private, out-of-state college, I have some bills to pay, to say the least. After applying to a thousand jobs and getting nowhere, I thought, "Well, as a woman, I can always take my clothes off for money." (a joke that became less funny when it was true). More people slowly filter into the chilled-out atmosphere and I am relieved by a breath of estrogen in the hodge-podge crowd of 30-something dudes and older artists. As a strategically informal operation, Bell #3 attracts a laid-back group of people interested in keeping their artistic abilities finely honed outside of art school. Similarly, the group typically relies on convincing their friends to get naked and stand very, very still for several hours. But me, I'm a professional, baby. I can hold poses like the Hoover Damn holds water. In the modeling biz, you don't have a boss or manager type consistently giving you feedback so you basically have no idea about your level of job performance. At Bell #3 Figure Drawing, it was nice to have an appreciative audience, even if the thing they were appreciating was the impressive bone structure of my feet. Pandora's Cake station played as the artists pained, the atmosphere wasn't in the least bit critical, everyone was just hanging out — but with a naked chick in the center of all of it. And what could be bad about that?

Bell #3 Figure Drawing Class, every Thursday from 7pm-10pm, $5, bell3drawing.wordpress.com, RSVP at bellthreedrawing@gmail.com.

Katrina

Posted 2010-04-17 19:00:33

Hey Emily,

Thanks for your essay. I am part of the estrogen contingency that drew you.

I go because it's a challenge, I like the people, and I know that opportunities like this come and go in one's life. The group IS laid back and non-critical. And the tatooed/pierced guy is a love who has walked me home on several occasions just to be sure I was safe.

This IS the best kept secret in the Libs. I give a lot of credit to these guys and gals for running this gig in such a professional manner. It's where you'll find me on a Thursday night, for sure, as long as it lasts.

Ruth V. Briggs

Posted 2010-04-18 11:28:29

I was so happy to see coverage about this group of artists.  I praise this weekly gathering of artists, for whom the reward is knowledge in their collective commitment to artistic growth beyond the walls of art school. 

It is so gratifying to me that these young men and women awake each day to their passion for art, from which they find much happiness and camaraderie.  I should disclose that my daughter and son-in-law are active participants and the organizer Ben Simon has become like a son to me.  I feel some sense of accomplishment as a mother in knowing that I have influenced my children in measuring success by means that are not quantified by the dollar sign.  This group of artist measure success through means that measure quality of life as a primary predictor for happiness.

Janet Finegar

Posted 2010-04-18 19:41:39

It is a bit funny to read about this group as the potentially scary bunch. . . you were probably safer from any form of violence naked in that room than you'd have been clothed in most parts of Philadelphia! But a nice review of a great group.

Gabriel Gadfly

Posted 2010-08-29 22:36:27

This sounds like a great group of people.

edo deweert

Posted 2010-09-04 23:26:48

ah, yes, the social drawing group....they get together to draw, or paint, or even photograph some nubile young maiden in often pretzel-like positions called "poses"
there is lots of cameraderie and praise is heaped upon the nubile young maiden (who may not - or may - suspect this really is all about t and a.
come on, guys, the camera has been invented...no n eed to draw that nubile young maiden; just go to any one of hundreds of sites in cyberspace and young can feast your eyes on one nubile young maiden after another.
you tell them that you are interested in "all types, shapes and sizes", but you are lying; you really want those nubile young maidens.
couple of myths that need exploding:
1. people who pose for art classes/groups do not need to sit really still
2. a good drawing is not contingent upon the pain and discomfort of the person posing.
check out my blog at www.themodelundraped.blogspot.com
it really IS all about sex, don't you get it?

edo deweert

Posted 2010-11-06 17:50:25

yep, as i have said countless times after reading stories like this: it IS all about sex....t and a.
one does not need a naked body to hone one's drawing/painting skills...the old gnarled oaktree on the corner of your street will do just fine for that.
no, drawing/painting ("artist's") groups like this are all about the opportunity to, for a few bucks, get "an eyefull"
which really is ok.....i am an older male and an exhibitionist, you tell me where i can be naked with some degree of tumescence, not get arrested and get paid for it, other than a nudist camp.
.....nd you people really think i do this "for the love of art"!

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Featuring everything from event roundups to concert reviews and sex talk, City Paper's Critical Mass is a space for off-the-wall coverage of Philly's A&E scene.

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