Art models disrobe to help immortalize the human form

photo Model Aubrey Johnson checks out drawings during a break between poses Thursday at Townsend Atelier.

Aubrey Johnson slips off her robe.

She has a tattoo running down her spine. There are small, red indentations on her back from where her bra pressed into her flesh. Her long, dark braid is swept over one shoulder.

A circle of artists stands at the ready in front of their easels in Townsend Atelier, a Southside art studio, where Johnson, 21, poses, one arm over her head, one hip slightly lifted.

Co-owner Stan Townsend adjusts the light on the modeling platform, and the artists set to work. Tonight is a figure drawing session, designed to give artists, teachers and students more experience with drawing the human form, an essential element of a fine-arts education.

"I love the thought of being suspended in a piece of art for eternity," Johnson says. "When you look at paintings, you always look at the person in the painting and wonder who they are. It was interesting to me, so I decided to get involved and see if I liked it."

"You have to be confident to stand in front of a group of people unclothed while they draw you," she will say later. "It gives you more confidence overall because you see these beautiful works of art, and you can't help but think there might be some truth in that."

Her first modeling experience was for a husband-and-wife pair of artists. "It was really comfortable because it was the two of them together," she said, "so I felt at ease about the situation."

Despite the difficulty of the pose she is holding, she is comfortable enough, she says, keeping perfectly still as the artists concentrate on their work.

"Aubrey, if you feel pain, break it," Townsend tells her.

"That won't happen for another two sessions," she assures.

The only sound is the scratching of pencils and charcoal.

Being able to remain motionless, Townsend says, is key. Finding a pose is an art form in itself.

"Especially when you have an itch," he said, "or your hair brushes against your face and you can't scratch it at all. It makes you do mind over matter."


Jordan Kendrick, a sculpture major at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, is also an art model. She says the stillness required by modeling is helpful to her both artistically and personally.

"I thought it might give me a better understanding of the anatomy if I were the one having to hold those positions for extended periods of time," Kendrick said.

Modeling for painting and drawing, Kendrick says, requires more stillness than modeling for sculpture, because shadows can affect the outcome of the work.

"Being an art major, I'm constantly running around all the time. [Modeling] is the one time I have to be still. I have to calm down and be quiet. It's kind of relaxing"

In addition to offering time for stillness in an otherwise frenetic day, modeling has financial benefits as well. Figure models often make $15 to $30 an hour, depending on the class or artist for whom they are modeling.


After 15 minutes, an alarm goes off, indicating a break. Johnson puts her robe back on, sits and stretches.

"It's a hard pose," she says. "Tonight my hip started hurting me. Luckily, I have a free massage on Saturday."

During the break, she makes her way around the room, looking at people's work, at the different ways the artists have chosen to render her. This is her favorite part.

"It can be very encouraging, especially when I'm holding a hard pose," she says.

Having time to look at the works in progress and interact with the artists can also be helpful in alleviating any potential awkwardness, Kendrick says.

"It kind of breaks that barrier. I'm not just the model standing up there naked in front of them, and they're not just drawing me, but it's more like a collaboration."

Artist Mia Bergeron says the time when a model looks at the easel can be nerve-wracking for her as an artist.

"I trust the model to know that I wish it was more," she says.

Indeed, trust is key to the artist-model relationship, particularly when the model is, quite literally, laid bare.

"There's a big difference between naked and nude," Bergeron says. "When a model is on the stand and everyone is drawing her, there's a nude. There are a lot of emotions. A naked person, we have a tendency to look at in a slightly more sexual way, whereas when there's a nude it doesn't translate the same way."

Johnson doesn't have qualms about modeling unclothed. "If I did, I wouldn't do it," she says "It's a job. You have to be professional about it. It's really not that big of a deal. There's a lot of respect."

"It's not like people are going in there to look at you," Kendrick adds. "We're analyzing the form. It's just a body... but it's really freeing at the same time to think that everyone is making art based on you."

Her first time, she says, she was "really, really nervous, but not so nervous I was red-faced and didn't want to take off the robe."

Compliments from the artists boosted her confidence.

Seeing the end result is thrilling, she says. "It's a really good reward for me to see something so well done and I ended up being the muse behind it. I'm excited for the breaks to come so I can see how [the artists] are perceiving me. I'm excited to be a part of that."

There can be moments of nerves, she says, when she'll look at a drawing and see her body looking less than ideal. "That's usually the part where I'm like, 'Oh no, do I really look like that? Maybe I need to change something.' "

As an artist, she says she doesn't think there is an ideal body type.

"I'm a normal person. I have a normal body that you probably don't see in a whole bunch of paintings where they try to get the stereotypical flawless hourglass body."

The stereotypical flawless body is, in fact, not what Townsend looks for when seeking models. "I prefer a model with a little more form," he says, "as opposed to the runway fashion Twiggys."

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