Shapes, shadows and skin

Grace Nichols models for a Life Drawing class and expresses her philosophy on posing nude

A room filled with easels, paint brushes, drawing pencils and the medium of the artist’s choice. They sit at their chairs and prepare their supplies. A young woman strolls in and slowly begins unloading her bags….and clothes. Layer by layer she peels off clothing and eventually walks in front of the artists—nude—to position herself.

Grace Nichols, a music therapy senior, is the model for the Life Drawing class, which is open to the local community and meets in 201 Mayfair bi-weekly on Tuesday nights. She began October 2009 with the main motivation of receiving payment. Models take turns being both clothed and nude and are paid $7.50 an hour for clothed posing and $15 for nude. Now, a year later, Nichols appreciates being an art model for more than the monetary benefits.

“You are art that is there to be drawn or painted,” Nichols said. “I have really grown to enjoy it because it encourages thinkers and art development as all different ethnicities and body types come in.”

The Life Drawing class is meant to be a platform for the Milledgeville community to practice their art by being supplied models to recreate on canvas or sketch paper. It began in 2002 with Rosemary Szczyiel, a former GCSU catalogue librarian, and Associate Professor of Art Valerie Aranda. Years later, it is still an offered class.

Chelsea Thomas | gcsunade.com

Senior mathematics major Zhouyan “Ambrose” Xie draws senior music theraphy model Grace Nichols during a Life Drawing class. The Life Drawing classes are open to community and offered bi-weekly on Tuesday nights in 201 Mayfair. Nichols gets paid $15 an hour to pose nude for the class.

“Figure drawing from live observation is common in art programs, giving the student time to develop an understanding of the human body in all its complexity and simplicity,” Aranda said. “The artist has time to study anatomy, proportion, body type, gesture and lighting.”

Many people imagine a life drawing class’ environment to be uncomfortable, but for many experienced artists and art models it is just another class. Nichols is completely at ease now, but she readily recalls her first time nude modeling.

“I remember the first time being called in. I thought ‘You’re just gonna have to go for it. You are gonna have to go and be a model and not be self-conscious about what you look like,’” Nichols said.

After that first session Nichols became comfortable in the artistic atmosphere and allowed herself to be confident within her own body. Nevertheless, it can be physically tiring for your body to stay posed in a certain position for too long a period. Sometimes her appendages fall asleep or go numb.

For some classes the artists “warm up” by drawing her for two minutes in a gesture “pose,” a position that is simple and expressive. Then she will choose a comfortable pose for a longer period of time, up to an hour. Yet, many wonder what an art model can possibly be thinking about while posing for long durations.

“You learn to kind of zone out, or depending on the class have conversations with the students. Otherwise, you pose and find something to think about. You learn to transcend your body. You go numb after a while,” Nichols said.

Many people in society view life drawing with criticism or hesitancy, possibly explaining the lack of consistent community interest in the Life Drawing class. However, for many artists it is just a part of free expression. Nichols believes it is the most “real and raw” art can get.

“The initial reaction to nudity is shock. It has always been perceived as overtly sexual and inappropriate, but we are allowing people to see that we are just a body. I think that’s probably another reason I really like it,” Nichols said. “Nude art has the ability to send that message when otherwise the naked body is so abused and oversexualized.”

In a society where films and advertisements are much more physically revealing than in previous decades, artists tend to look at the body in more respectful, creative parameters. They value the human anatomy as a unique form providing proportions, textures and relationships with lighting.

“The life drawing experience provides the student/artist an opportunity to observe, understand and respect the human body and all of our unique differences,” Aranda said.

Nichols believes that it is all for the sake of the growing artist and hopes to continue modeling for that cause.

“We all have a body and we are all just shapes and shadows,” Nichols said. “Beauty and art shouldn’t be confined to one object’s shape and color.”

An artist in the class who appreciates Nichol’s willingness to model is Zhouyan Xie, senior mathematics major who goes by “Ambrose,” who first began taking life drawing classes in China. She feels much more comfortable in this class compared to other academic courses because it is much more “comfortable and freeing.”

“Even though we have similar poses for classes, it does really challenge me,” Xie said. “I am trying to challenge myself with lines and shadows usage.”

Overall, many artists and models like Nichols choose to express their appreciation of humanly beauty by supporting life drawing and open mindedness. She aspires to use artists’ drawings and paintings of her to further her future business as an art model.

“A lot of people think ‘You are posing nude, doesn’t that make you uncomfortable?’ But my mentality is that this is just the way we are,” Nichols said.

Posted by Chelsea Thomas on Oct 22 2010. Filed under Features. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.