Story by Jayati Ramakrishnan
Photo by Andrew Seng
Lindsey Belleau places her hands on her hips and points her toes outward. Her lips are curved into a slight smile, and her blue eyes, although fixed on the blank wall in front of her, sparkle eagerly. She looks lost in thought, but is sharply aware of what’s going on around her.
Relaxed, she drapes her hands over her head and rotates every few minutes, so that each person in the room can see her from various angles. Belleau stands atop a platform that is draped in a patterned yellow rug and colorful blankets, which pops against the washed-out brick walls and cement floor. Her pale skin features three green tattoos: a narrow ivy vine encircling her right upper arm, a large “ankh” (the Egyptian sign for life) on the back her left calf, and a Taurus zodiac sign on the small of her back. A circle of 16 people sit around the platform, balancing two-foot-long pads of paper on easels or their knees while furiously blending soft grey charcoal lines into the grainy white paper, their heads snapping up every few seconds to look at Belleau. After an hour, Belleau steps down from the platform for a break. She walks to the corner of the room and picks up a dark purple robe to cover her nude body.
Nude modeling for figure drawing classes is as much of a creative process for the models as it is for the people sketching them. “Standing still is a great opportunity to meditate and focus. You get paid for it, and the other artists around you are doing what they love,” says Belleau, a 26-year-old singer and dancer. Originally from San Diego, Belleau moved up to Eugene a few years ago. She had been interested in working as a nude model and considers finding her current job pure luck.
Belleau draws more from the experience of nude modeling than a paycheck. “I enjoy being naked,” she says. “I love clothes, but I definitely am an exhibitionist. I love to be as I was created – which was naked. I try to be naked as much as possible.” She feels a sense of freedom with nudity and has even considered living in a nudist colony – although if she did, it would have to be somewhere near the ocean. The job also allows her to be self-motivated, both as an artist and as a person. “Lately, it’s been more towards—I want to be my own boss and make my life around art.”
Although many college students model part time to earn some extra money, Belleau is a full-time live model, modeling nude two to three times a day for art classes around Eugene and Springfield. Kyle Swartzlender, an art history major at the University of Oregon, models about three to four times a term. Like Belleau, he stumbled upon the job almost by accident. His roommate was looking through the UO job database and thought that Swartzlender might be interested in this position. “Actually, it sounded amazing. I’ve never been shy about my body. I went in almost as a joke, and they asked if I had any experience – which I didn’t – but also with dance, tai chi, yoga, anything to keep you still – and I did have that.” Males were in short supply as well. “I just assumed there wasn’t going to be a huge market for men comfortable with being naked – and I was right,” Swartzlender says. Only seven of about 60 people applying to be models were male.
Unlike fashion modeling, desirable qualities in a live model, or someone who poses nude for art classes, have little to do with physical appearance. “You’re not always trying to be pretty. You’re trying to be interesting for the artist,” Swartzlender says. He recalls his first experience, when he applied in person to model. “They kind of look at you – I think it’s mostly whether you look like anyone else – they want diversity for the different art classes. Apparently I didn’t, so I got hired.”
Sadie Trush, another UO student who models part-time, says that she has always been comfortable drawing nudity as well as modeling it, and looking at it from an artistic standpoint helps people feel more at ease. “I understand that it’s not judging. It’s appreciating values and shading.” Both agree that the nudity aspect is much more uncomfortable for the artists than for the model. Swartzlender has no reservations about modeling. “I went to the country fair when I was younger. I’ve seen naked bodies, and I’ve been a naked body. Once you’ve done it—once that precedent is set—it’s a lot easier.”
Looking at figure drawing from the artist’s perspective helps the models feel less self-conscious and gives them a respect for how strenuous the artist’s work can be. “It’s difficult to capture a human being on paper, especially in a short amount of time,” Swartzlender says. Trush feels that preconceived ideas of the human figure make drawing more difficult. “The mistake people make is, ‘Oh, I know what a leg looks like,’ so they draw it. I’ll draw what I see and it looks weird, but a lot of people don’t draw what they see.”
Though modeling usually involves standing or sitting in one place, it’s physically strenuous and sometimes painful. Legs fall asleep, backs get strained, and arms lose feeling. The challenge of sitting still for three hours can be one of the downsides of modeling, but the environment it creates for introspection can be valuable time for the model. “I often almost forget there’s people around me, especially poses upward of five minutes,” Swartzlender says. “Your mind tends to travel into weird places; I sometimes have to remind myself not to get up and leave.” Trush cherishes the time and has found that the silence and mental solitude have created a prime environment for creative expression. “I have a busy schedule – I’m taking 20 credits, so this is a time where I have to be still. Sometimes I write poems in my head, and during the breaks I go and write them down – I call the book ‘Still and Silent.’” She laughs. “It’s much better than thinking about time.” Belleau likes that the job expects her to be silent. “It’s good training for me,” she says. “I want my speech to be more effective, so that what comes out is what [I] really want to say.”
In addition to classes, Belleau also works as a private model for artists. “It’s been very interesting how they treat the model – I’ve been treated like a god.” She finds that people are consistently going out of their way to make sure she’s comfortable. “The people that you meet are amazing, and talented, and kind – it really goes to show that if you do the work, you will get there.”
Above all else, the experience of observing and being observed instills a heightened sense of respect and appreciation for the human form. “Drawing people makes me realize how beautiful they all are,” says Trush. “I don’t know how to explain it until you do it – but once you draw them you realize all the little things that are beautiful about them. I guess it’s kind of like being in love.”