The 42 Hour Pose

I've been planning this post for awhile, but my new full-time IT job has kept me too busy to sit down and write it.  The job is OK, and it is nice to be getting a full paycheck.  But I miss all the modeling gigs I got to do during the weekday hours after I was laid off.

One of those modeling gigs was a long pose at the Texas Academy of Figurative Art (TAFA).  And by long pose, I mean one lasting several weeks.  It was a standing pose with one foot up on a block, my back to most of the students.  My left arm was away from my torso holding a pole while my right arm hung at my side.  The pose was challenging, but I had enough breaks during the sessions to make it bearable.  The real challenge was getting back into the same position after each break.  The feet were easy since outlines were marked on the platform and on the block.  The turn of my head was a little tricky.  I marked the spot where my gaze was fixed with a little piece of blue tape, and I always moved my eyes back and forth whenever I resumed the pose, to make sure the edges of my peripheral vision were the same as before.  The left arm, the one holding the pole, was always the most difficult to get right.  A mark had been made on the floor for the bottom of the pole, but there was no way to mark either the top or the angle of the pole.  It was a best guess, with the students checking my position against their drawings.  At some point during that first session, I made a mark on the wall with blue tape, and started each resumption of the pose by putting the top of the pole on that mark before moving into position.  I tried to memorize that motion of moving the pole away from the wall and into the pose.  That seemed to work for the most part.

The sessions were every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon, from 1:00 to 4:00, and they lasted seven weeks, 42 hours in all.  I held the pose 15 to 20 minutes at a time with 5 to 8 minute breaks in between.  So if my pose to break ratio was three to one, I was in the pose somewhere between 31 and 32 hours.

The work produced by Ron and his students during such a long pose was exquisite (as is most of the work produced at TAFA).  Some students worked on the same drawing the entire seven weeks while others moved about the room and did multiple drawings.  I did get a few shots just after the pose ended on the last day.

While I did get rather tired of that pose (and especially of looking at a spot on the wall, faced away from all of the artists), I do miss getting to model at TAFA so often.  I love the work that they do there, and I hope that, somehow, I get to do another long pose there in the not-too-distant future.

The Fun of Modeling

**I'm going to include a few photos with this post.  The last one will be a full frontal, not-safe-for-work shot, so  if you'd rather not see it, don't scroll all the way down.**

I've had quite a few fun sessions this past week, which just makes my return to full-time IT work that much more difficult.  Last Wednesday (the day Van Cliburn died), I was the model for a project in which each member of the class participated in a single drawing.  They all took turns placing marks on the page, filling in whatever they thought the drawing needed at the time.  And the drawing was done on large paper attached to the wall.  The result was moved out into the hallway gallery, and I got a shot of it below.  It's not the most accurate drawing anatomically or proportionally, but the class had a great time doing it.  And I had fun watching them (until my back started hurting from the pose).

This week at the University of North Texas, the Drawing II classes have been working on a fun project.  The students have to draw from the model doing one of three things:  exaggeration (making one or more body parts larger than normal), dislocation (moving body parts around by changing perspective, etc.), or transfiguration (drawing the figure and incorporating some kind of animal into it).  To help with the transfiguration, several stuffed, toy, or model animals were scattered throughout the room.  Here's the setup of the room I was in earlier today:

The most impressive stuffed animal was, of course, the mountain lion.  Unfortunately, my pose was independent of everything else, so I didn't get to do one that looked like I was interacting with it.  The class did do some warm-up gestures before the long drawings, and I did do one two-minute pose bent over with my arm outstretched toward the raccoon, as if I were offering it food (probably not a good idea if it were a live raccoon).

Here are some shots of some of the drawings at the end of class...

And finally, I couldn't resist getting a picture of myself with the mountain lion.  One of the students graciously took this shot of me on my phone (NSFW):

All Good Things...

With great relief and sadness, I report that I have accepted a new full-time IT position and that I will start my new job on March 13th.  I am relieved that our family income will now be restored to 2012 levels, meaning that we can continue paying the mortgage, car payment, etc.  I am sad because my availability to model will be drastically cut from what it has been these past two months.

Since the semester started in mid-January, I have had a wonderful time modeling fifteen to twenty hours per week at several different schools.  Instead of getting up and going to a job that I felt like I had to go to, I got to go to a job that I loved.  Every modeling gig I had, I went with the attitude that I was privileged to be there and that I was going to give those students or those artists the best session that any model could ever give.  I was having so much fun that I was beginning to look at home-based businesses and work-from-home opportunities just to keep my days open to model while still bringing in enough money to live on.  But alas, nothing I saw started out paying as much as a full time information technology position would, and I need the income now.  In the current economy, I feel fortunate to have gotten a new job after only two months off.

I did push my start date back a couple of weeks to accommodate all the model bookings I had.  Yesterday, I had to cancel my only long-range bookings (four dates in April at Mountain View College), and doing so nearly broke my heart.  I hate having to cancel any model booking.  Counting the two classes I did yesterday (at two different schools), I will have 19 hours of modeling this week.  I also have a Tuesday morning session at the Fort Worth Community Arts Center next week, the day before I start my new job.

I will still model evenings and weekends, but most of the soliciting I've done for the current semester has been for weekday classes.  I don't have much going on in the evenings this spring, so I may not get to model much for a little while after I start my new job.  But I will definitely keep modeling for whatever sessions I can get; I plan on doing it until I get so old and decrepit that I can no longer hold a pose...

Van Cliburn

I had a fun class at Mountain View College in Dallas this morning, but in the middle of it, I learned via news on my smartphone that local pianist and icon Van Cliburn had passed away.  He'd suffered with bone cancer for the past view months, so his passing was expected but still sad.

Van Cliburn first came to prominence in 1958 when he did what was previously thought impossible:  he, an American, won the Tchaikovsky Piano Competition in the Soviet Union during the height of the Cold War.  I attended a concert on December 31, 1990 in which he played with the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, and the experience of seeing him play his signature piece, Tchaikovsky's First Piano Concerto, live is something that I will never forget.  I also attended the first official baseball game ever played at the Texas Rangers' Ballpark in Arlington in 1994, and Van Cliburn and the Fort Worth Symphony played the National Anthem before the game.  That remains the most amazing rendition of "The Star Spangled Banner" that I've ever heard.

And some time in 1998, I was shopping for DVDs at a BestBuy close to my apartment.  When I turned to look at another rack, I was surprised to see Van Cliburn standing next to me.  I said, "Excuse me, but you look just like Van Cliburn."  He smiled, offered his hand, and said, "That's because I am Van Cliburn."  We had a nice little conversation, and I told him about the times I had seen him play.  He remembered that New Year's Eve concert very fondly.

Here's video of Van Cliburn playing the first ten minutes of Tchaikovsky's First Piano Concerto, taken in Moscow during his return trip there in 1962.  I wish I could find video of the entire piece, but this will have to do.  Rest in Peace Van Cliburn.

ADDENDUM:  I know I posted this last week, but I have to add an addendum here.  I found a video of that National Anthem performance at the opening of the Ballpark in Arlington, attached to the article here:  http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20130227&content_id=42075048&vkey=news_tex&c_id=tex

Perspective

It's Monday night, and I still haven't heard anything about the two job interviews I had last week.  I have very mixed feelings about the whole thing, even though I know I can't go on like this forever.  I feel like I'm having the time of my life, but I'm sacrificing financial security and peace of mind for that time.  I woke up this morning, knowing that I would get to model for an 8:00 to 11:00 class and an 11:00 to 2:00 class at the University of North Texas.  And then I thought about how wonderful it would be if I always had a job that I "got to" go to rather than "had to" go to.

Anyway, my two classes were both Drawing II classes at UNT, in the same room, and today they were doing an exercise on perspective.  There was a large rectangle on the floor, and the students were supposed to draw that rectangle, preferably from a corner.  I would then take three different poses in that rectangle, and the students would have to draw all three figures on the same drawing.  They would all be standing poses, so my eye level was supposed to be at the same height on the paper in all the poses.  Here's a picture of the room this morning, with the rectangle laid out with masking tape on the floor.

It's a little different feel being off the model stand and on the floor at the same level as the students.  I kind of like it, and I like doing the standing poses.  The only bad thing about the whole thing was winding up with charcoal all over my feet from the floor.  In fact, I gave up on my slippers early on, and just went barefoot the whole day.  My feet were a mess when it was all over.

Illness, Unemployment, and Job Interviews

I've had a wonderfully busy six weeks of modeling.  My long pose at the Texas Academy of Figurative Art is now in its fifth week, and the pieces that are being produced are looking fantastic.  I took this picture in the middle of week three...

I'm not crazy about a back pose since I have to spend all my time looking at the wall, but I do love the work that is being done by the artists.  I wound up catching the flu during the second week of this pose.  I felt fine for the Tuesday session, but by Wednesday night, my head was pounding with a fever of 101 degrees.  I didn't feel any better Thursday morning, and I had chills.  I didn't want to cancel the session since they couldn't very well hire a sub for this long pose.  I was bundled up at home and couldn't stop shivering, and I wondered how I could model nude and be able to hold a pose.  I had some 800mg Ibuprofen pills left from a bout with strep throat the previous year, and I took one of those.  My fever went down, and the chills stopped.  So, I went to TAFA to model.  Since I was facing the wall, I wasn't breathing toward anyone, and I made it a point to keep to myself during that session and not speak to any of the artists.  As far as I know, no one caught the flu from me.  I don't recommend modeling with such an illness, and I probably wouldn't have done it if I hadn't been in the middle of a continuing pose like this.  I have to say probably though since I like to maintain my reputation as a dependable model, one who is going to show up on time every time.

I've also modeled for multiple sessions at Mountain View College and the University of North Texas.  I did a Friday evening with some very talented teenagers from the Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts.  My session a few weeks ago at Friday Night Lights and Shadows went well.  I was able to hold the Dying Slave pose for the entire three hours with regular breaks.  The more I model, the more I love modeling.  I wish there were only some way I could do it full time and make a real living at it.

I've been on unemployment since the start of January.  The salary at my old job was such that I am getting the maximum unemployment benefit, $440.00 per week.  The maximum allowed earnings on unemployment is 125% of that, or $550.  So, if I make $110 or less modeling in a week, I still get $440 dollars in unemployment compensation.  If I make $120 modeling, I get $430 in unemployment, and if I make $150 modeling in a week, I get $400 in unemployment.  And so on...

I've been talking to recruiters and sending out resumes regularly since before I was laid off, but I've not had any serious job prospects until this week.  I have an interview tomorrow (Thursday) at 9:00 before I go model at TAFA that afternoon.  Depending on how long the interview goes, I may have to show up at TAFA in a suit and tie before stripping down to nothing.  Talk about contrasts.  But I would take nude over a suit any day and for any class.  I also have an interview with another company the following day.  So things are looking up on the job front.  I hate to think of having to give up all this modeling availability, but my family and I need some financial stability and security, something only a full-time job will bring.

Blogging for a Year

I took a look back at the blog and saw that today marks the one year anniversary of the first blog post.  Since then, I have made 36 entries, about one every week and a half or so.  Not too bad.

I've been taking advantage of my free time to model a lot lately.  I'm currently two weeks into a multi-week long pose at the Texas Academy of Figurative Art.  Throughout my modeling career, I have loved doing the short pose sessions, ones that start with quick one to three minute gesture poses before moving on to twenty or thirty minute ones.  I've always been complimented on my gestures.  But lately, I've been wanting to be a part of something that will last and that might be seen in galleries, etc.  So I have volunteered for some long poses.  The one I'm doing at TAFA will last five or six weeks.

I also took on a challenging three-hour pose this past Friday night for a group of artists and painters, called Friday Night Lights and Shadows.  At my suggestion, I did a close approximation of Michelangelo's Dying Slave sculpture.  I did it not because I'm a masochist but because I truly wanted to see something special in the pieces that night.  Unfortunately, I spent all my break time recooperating my body and trying to stay loose, so I didn't see much of the art work produced.  But maybe I'll be surprised one day and see one on exhibit somewhere...