Random Art Model Musings—Finding Work (2018 Edition)

Note: First in a series of random, off-the-top-of-my-head stuff

I haven’t been busy modeling as of late. A large part of this was because I felt my body needed a break. But I’ve found that the work has dried up for a lot of institutions I used to get a lot of work out of.

Specifically, for a long while, I used to do a lot of modeling at colleges and universities for their art departments. And they were awesome to work for. Cool professors, awesome students, and really neat people handling clerical/administrative roles. I used to tell prospective art models to seek out art departments if they were thinking of getting their feet wet in the modeling community.

But it’s become increasingly frustrating to work for many of them as of late. To the point where I’d say the whole hiring and booking process dissuades models from working for them.

You see, in many instances, the school’s art department has been pretty much removed from hiring and scheduling art models entirely. It used to be that someone in a given school’s art department hired models and scheduled them each semester.

For the past few years (and I have no idea why–liability issues, I’m sure. Probably some mission creep), most schools’ HR departments have decided it was their job to hire and book art models.

And I’ve found that, generally, that suuuuuucks.

More to the point, I’ve learned that most college and university HR departments have ZERO idea of what it’s like to be an art model. And, when it comes to a collegiate setting, we, as art models, definitely see ourselves as–what would be in the 9 to 5 world–as consultants or freelancers. We work a handful of hours each semester.

And building upon that, pretty much every HR department I’ve had to deal with as an art model doesn’t seem to collaborate with the instructors at the school, and seemingly schedules models on a whim.

I’ve been asked to come in to HR departments multiple times during the application (or in some cases, reapplication process, once the hiring and scheduling process was removed from art departments) to do such things like:

• Watch videos on stuff like handling student records and other stuff that’s run-of-the-mill for most school employees, but definitely not applicable for art models.
• Submit to background checks. Including some that ask to contact references.
  • While I’ve never experienced it, I’ve had models tell me that other schools have asked for drug testing.
• Submitting a resume. And not one specific to art modeling.
• Log into university employee web sites in order to log hours, get paid, etc.

All this for jobs that don’t even constitute part-time employment. Let alone full-time employment. We don’t get full-time employee benefits. But the school insists on treating us as employees nonetheless. With all the bureaucracy that it entails.

And I’ve noticed something. As the art departments have been largely removed from hiring and booking models it seems like most of these HR departments care very little for models. Or more importantly, understand the nuances that involve being an art model.

I’ve had issues such as being booked for classes that didn’t exist (a clearly embarrassed professor actually had to email the HR department and CC me to explain she didn’t have a class that needed a model the day I was previously booked for), various emails I’ve sent indicating that I could work on a given time and day go unanswered (in one particular example, I sent several follow-up emails to the HR person indicating I could work for several classes without a response. When she sent out an unrelated email and I pressed her on the issue, I got a response that was along the lines of whoops! Got a little busy and didn’t have the time to respond to any of your emails over the last several months lol!).
Hopefully if you’re a model or are looking to get into the art modeling scene, these circumstances don’t apply to any of the colleges or universities in your area. I used to find them an incredible source of work, with really awesome faculty and students, and an environment that was understanding of new art models. But (at least where I live), I’ve found that HR has managed to sink their claws into so much of what used to be the purview of their respective art departments, that it’s tough to recommend modeling for most schools.

It’s really sad. I have so, soooo many fond memories of working for various schools in the area. But it’s to the point where HR seems to have stepped in to replace what used to be the responsibility of college art departments and made the whole hiring, scheduling, and working process unbearable. Too many hoops to jump through for little reward. I’ve been finding that local drawing/painting groups offer more consistent work for almost zero barrier to entry.

Another Grey Sunday

I woke up around 7am for a 9:30 gig this morning.

It was tough to do. You see, it was a particularly overcast and dismal-looking Sunday morning.

The perfect morning for wrapping yourself under a blanket and staying in bed till noon.

But I had a job to do. Namely, a morning gesture session at Del Ray Artisans!

It’s been a while since I’ve modeled for them, and I love doing gesture poses, so it really didn’t take much in the way of motivation to get me out the door and to the studio.

The bus rolled up to the studio with plenty of time to spare, so I went to grab a cup of coffee and did a bit of early morning window shopping along the streets of Del Ray, Alexandria.

The streets were damn near deserted, and I was wondering how many people would show up for today’s gesture session. Like I said, it was the perfect day to stay in bed!

Around 9am I made my way to the studio and said hello to Katherine, the monitor for today’s session. As dismal and grey as it was outside, the inside of the studio felt absolutely cozy. We both joked about how many people would turn up on a morning like this.

After making small talk with Katherine, I went to the back of the studio and slipped out of my street clothes and into my robe. As I re-entered the studio, I saw another familiar face. Phew! At least two people were here to draw me.

In most gesture drawing sessions, poses typically don’t last much longer than five or six minutes. Generally, they start out with a series of either 30 second or one minute poses, and gradually work their way up to the one, two, three, and five minute marks. So when you do gesture poses, you want to be thinking of the next few poses in your head while in your current pose. Since you’re only holding them from anywhere from 30 seconds for a few minutes, you can really be creative. I know when I first started modeling, when it came to longer poses (10 minutes in length and longer), I’d come up with some really cool looking poses in my head, only to be in utter agony only a few minutes later! But with gesture poses, you can usually hold even the most grueling poses in place, since you’re only in pose for a few minutes at best.

As I began modeling, a few more people showed up in my warmup series of 10 one-minute poses. So at least a few more people were willing to get out of bed on a yucky morning to draw from a live model 🙂

I did roughly 50 minutes of gesture poses before taking a short break to work out the kinks. For some reason (maybe it was because it was so early on a Sunday morning), my muscles felt stiffer than usual. As I climbed back into my robe, one of the artists told me she was new to the group and was asking me some questions about modeling. I was only too happy to answer them, as it’s a topic that I (obviously) love talking about! Stuff like how hot it gets under the podium, how some poses that look good in your head hurt like crazy after only a few minutes, things like that. I remember how I used to be fairly nervous talking to artists during my breaks or before/after the session, but it’s something that I’ve grown comfortable with after a while (within reason, of course).

After the group reconvened, it turned out there was less than an hour left to go—time was flying by! So Katherine (the coordinator for today’s session) suggested that we do a quick series of motion studies similar to the very first time I modeled for her sessions at Del Ray Artisans. In this case, I did a series of related three, one-minute poses, for a total of three poses. Once I finished my third pose, I’d reverse myself and do the second and first pose I did from the first series (imagine walking forward for three steps and walking back, only you’re holding each step for a minute). We then did a similar exercise, only involving four steps at 30 seconds apiece.

After that was done, I did two more six minute poses. After the timer went off for the last time, Katherine thanked me for modeling for the session today. It seemed time passed so quickly! So I asked if this was it, to which Katherine replied that we still had a few minutes left. So without hesitation, I agreed to get into one last three minute pose to round out the session.

Once the timer went off for the last pose of the session, I remarked that it appeared that this was it for the session, and the attendees sincerely thanked me for my time (and I did likewise!). I ran to the back of the studio to get dressed, and then said my goodbyes to those still left in the studio.

Normally, I miss the next bus back to my apartment when I model for Del Ray Artisans, as by the time I get dressed, the next bus is passing by and I have to cool my heels until the next bus arrives. But as luck would have it, it turned out that the bus was running a few minutes behind, so I ran out into the rain and across the street to the bus stop, and thankfully got home a bit earlier than I was expecting 🙂

A Lack of Motivation

Four years…

It’s been damn near close to four years since I wrote my last blog post.

First off, I’ve been perfectly fine. But I do apologize if I made anyone worry.

But a scary thing happened to me a few years back. I was actually modeling so much, I became burned out because of it.

Never thought I’d say that. Because of all the joy that modeling has brought me, I don’t have to model.

I get to model!

But I was doing so much of it that, after a while, I stopped getting that spark that I did ever since I first started out.

In addition, the Corcoran College of Art and Design, where I did so much of my work in my early days, folded up shop (they’re technically part of George Washington University in DC, but they don’t have as many weekend and night time offerings that the original Corcoran in Georgetown used to). So that was kind of a bummer.

So for these reasons, I stopped modeling for a while. And subsequently, stopped updating this blog.

But I’m back now, and I really hope to update it with my adventures over the past year or so… adventures that, up to now, I haven’t chronicled.

Some of you have left me comments in the meantime, and I hope to respond to them, however late, in the coming weeks.

I realize, that as I seek out other venues, there’s more for me, as a model, to tell. And share.

And more for me to learn.

Display Model

I had a really neat experience last week!

I modeled for a new venue in DC, the Washington Drawing Center. I  hadn’t heard of it until Paul Pietsch (whom I’ve worked with for years as a model at the Hillyer Art Space) asked me if I’d be up for working a Thursday night session he was running there. He informed me it’s a new project/space led in part by Paul Reuther who I’ve worked with previously at the Dupont Drawing Group.  I’m always excited to work for new venues, and doubly excited to work for people that I’ve had great experiences with in the past, so I immediately accepted his invitation!

The session I was originally scheduled for (which was also the kickoff session) got cancelled due to snow. If you’ve been following the weather over the last few months, the DC area (as well as a lot of the East Coast) has been getting slammed by snow storms. Paul kindly rescheduled me for mid-March (as an aside, it’s now late March and, as I’m typing this, we’re STILL getting snow. Grrrr!).

A few days prior when Paul emailed me to confirm, he went on to mention that this would be a clothed gig, and would I be all right with it?  The explanation was that there was a studio/gallery walk that night that the Washington Drawing Center was participating in. Basically, people visiting the other galleries and studios on the Art Walk might drop in to see the Center’s space and the artwork. I was more than happy to oblige, seeing as how A) I’m happy to be modeling period, and B) I always enjoy it when I get a chance to model in front of people who may have never seen what it’s like to draw from the human form.

The Washington Drawing Center is located at the Arts Walk at Monroe Street Market just south of Catholic University of America (where I also model). I arrived early, so I strolled down the Arts Walk for a bit and eventually walked into the studio and made small talk with Paul Pietsch. I was telling him how I could really see the potential for the WDC and the Arts Walk as a whole, being able to serve as a hub for the DC arts scene, and Paul said how the outdoor plaza was just screaming to be used for drawing and other activities when the weather got warmer.

We decided on a seated pose and I told him I’d hold it for 30 minutes at a time with a five minute break between poses. This particular studio was on the small side, and even with eight artists in attendance, it was a bit of a tight fit! This being an open session in the literal sense, the windows to the studio were left uncovered so that people could walk by and hopefully check out the art on display and perhaps be enticed to sign up for a future session.

The session went great! The pose was easy to hold and get back into (Paul Reuther stopped by to paint and was kind enough to mark my feet with tape before I got out of my first pose so that I could slip back into it that much quicker). As I was staring at the wall, out of the corner of my eye I could see people walk down the sidewalk and by the studio, and then start walking backwards as they inevitably thought “hey, wait… what’s going on here?” I noticed quite a few flashes go off as people stopped to take pictures of the event. I always find it enjoyable when people get to see what happens in the studio.

I should also mention that I’ve been dealing with quite a bit of stress and anxiety over the past few weeks. But when I got to the studio, I was filled with an incredible amount of positive energy that just had me in such a good mood over the course of the session. I was honestly sorry it had to come to an end. It was THAT positive of an experience! It’s weird, but there have been several times where I was going through something incredibly stressful in my life, but when I got up onto the podium, all the stress and anxiety totally went away, and I was in a good mood not only throughout the session, but for the rest of the day as well.

I know, I know, I’ve said it countless times, but this is why I model: to be a part of the creative process and give something of myself that, I hope, will inspire others. Frankly, there are more reliable sources of income that pay better and put your body through less physical stress. It’s the intangibles that drive me. The fact that I can hop up onto a podium in a room full of strangers, most often with me being nude (and as a result, vulnerable) and immediately feel a rush as I get to be part of the creative process and inspire talented people around me to give them something that they want to paint or draw. There was a really good energy in the room and the artists drew and painted some incredible pictures of me. I was honored to be a part of that, and I was pretty much floating as I got up and headed out the door and caught the Metro back home. I definitely see good things for both the Washington Drawing Center and the Arts Walk in the future 🙂

A Grey Sunday

Sometimes when you model, you’re legitimately sorry to see the session come to an end. The group you worked with was so incredible that you just wished the session could go on for another hour or two.

I had such an experience just now. For the past two Sundays, I was a portrait model for a pre-college class at the Corcoran. Students getting ready to go to college take a special class here in order to have additional work for their portfolios or simply to brush up their skills prior to shipping out for college.

For one thing, it was a full house! Most of my typical weekend classes only have about five to eight students in them, but we had something like 12 to 15 students, and people actually had to scrounge around and find spare easels! There really wasn’t any room to spare in the studio.

The instructor started out by having each student say their name, where they were planning on going to school, and one interesting thing about themselves that most people don’t know about them. And then the instructor asked me to say one interesting thing about myself, and I was honestly stumped! I mean, this is probably the most interesting thing I do that not everyone knows about me 🙂

The first week’s class consisted of mostly instruction without the model, as well as some housekeeping (you know, going over the syllabus, supply lists, etc.), but I was able to sit for three half-hour blocks with a quick break in between each before the class ended. So the students had the basics down, and I was scheduled to return the following Sunday (today) so that they could finish their portraits (or start a new one, if they really weren’t feeling the one they did the first session). For a compressed amount of time, the students didn’t waste any of it getting to work, and based on the instructor’s comments, most of them had the fundamentals down before the class ended for the day.  As the class wound down, the instructor gave me special dispensation to leave a few minutes early so she could show the class the proper way to clean up after themselves. The instructor and the students offered me a sincere “thank you” as I got up to catch the bus back home. Plus, the instructor in the class across from this one came in during one of the breaks and inquired as to my modeling availability for one of her late Spring classes. So needless to say the day ended on a really positive note 🙂

I got up today on a chilly and grey Sunday morning. You can’t imagine how much I just wanted to crawl back into bed for a few more hours! But I faithfully got into the same outfit I wore the previous session (note, if you do clothed modeling over the course of multiple sessions, make sure to wear the same outfit each time unless specifically told otherwise. What I like to do is wash whatever I wore for the session immediately after getting back home so it’s all ready to go for the next session) and trudged out the door and headed to class. I was wondering how many people would actually show up, since whenever the weather’s not so hot (or conversely, when it’s the first day of decent weather in the spring) you tend to see a nosedive in class attendance. But it doesn’t matter if I model for one person or one hundred–I have a job to do, and I do it to the best of my ability regardless of the circumstances.

It was an incredible time! Pretty much everyone showed up, there was a lot of energy in the room, and you could tell by the instructor’s comments that this was a particularly talented group of students. Several times after the 30 minutes was up and the timer rang, I heard the occasional (cheerful) “aw, mannnn…” and you could tell people were really getting into the groove and wanted to keep going (I volunteered to do so, but the instructor told me to take a break).

As the class wound down, I couldn’t help but notice how grey and dreary it still was outside (the spot I was focusing on was right next to a window), yet the studio itself was cozy and the atmosphere upbeat. During the last hour, I kept wishing that the session could somehow last an extra hour or two–the pose I was in was giving me no discomfort whatsoever, and people were really, really having fun, and I felt honored to be the instrument that inspired people to really want to get creative!

The timer went off for the last time, and I got up, put on my coat, and headed for the door. I got another sincere thank you from those in the room, and several people thanked me individually as I left. I really wished the class would have gone on for another hour or two, it was that much fun.

It was a kind of bittersweet feeling: after all, I didn’t want the session to end because I was having a good time, but at the same time, I was thankful that I could be the medium in which people were able to access to harness their creativity and take part in the learning process and become even better artists. It’s a hard feeling to explain, but when you experience it, you just know.

As I’ve said on several occasions, days like today are why I do this–it’s not for the money (but believe me, I don’t mind it one bit!) but for the fact that I feel that the studio is a collaborative process between artist and model, and on days like today, you can’t help but pick up on the positive energy in the room and know that everybody (artists and models) is doing their best. It’s an amazing feeling!

I really, REALLY hope to have my entry on outdoor modeling done soon.

Gesture Poses in Action

I know, I know… I’m woefully behind on new blog posts 🙂

Today, I’d like to share with you a really neat video (note, contains nudity). This was posted by Dan, a Texan art model who has been modeling professionally for years, and who I’ve had the opportunity to get to know online. He has kindly allowed me permission to repost what I think is a great video that actually shows you what it’s like to be in the opening moments of an art class or drawing group. For all I can write about art modeling, it’s a completely different thing to see it first hand. Here, Dan goes through a series of gesture poses, and you get an idea of what it’s like to drop your robe for the class and wow the group with your poses!

WARNING: as you’d expect (and as I said above), this video contains nudity and is probably Not Safe For Work.  While I (obviously) don’t think there’s anything wrong with the nude form, your boss or HR department may have other views on the matter.

As you can see, it’s all businesslike and very professional. The model drops his or her robe, gets into their first pose, and the artists immediately get to work. It’s nothing how I initially pictured life modeling to be. I was sure there would be audible gasps the first few times I did this, and I know darn well that for probably the first 10 sessions I did, my hands were trembling as I spent what felt like an eternity undoing my robe. But as you can see here, there’s nothing smarmy or unseemly about art modeling. In fact, I feel incredibly safe when I model, even thought I’m arguably the most vulnerable one in the room.

At any rate, there’s only so much I can tell you in writing about art modeling. Dan has kindly granted me permission to share with you what a typical opening session in a class or drawing group looks like. Enjoy!

Scap-tacular!

Scap-tacular. And scap-u-riffic. Two words coined recently in an introductory drawing course I was modeling for 🙂

I had a great time a few weeks ago working with a professor who I’ve been working with for the past four years. One of the things she likes to do in her college classes is to illustrate human anatomy, in this case, the way in which the scapula works, by having me hop onto the podium during her lecture and instruction period and have me turn my back to the class and have me slowly rotate my arms all over so that the students can see how the scapulae look when the arms are moving in various directions. It’s really, really cool. It makes me feel like one of those human dummies high school classes use to illustrate human anatomy, only in this case, people are getting a live dummy 😉

It’s always fun when I get to work a class that’s focusing on anatomy. If you do it long enough, once you hear the professor talk about certain parts of the body, you immediately know what kinds of poses they’re going to ask for. In this case, the professor brought out a (fake!) human skeleton to talk about the various parts of the body that can be used as a landmark while drawing. So when she started talking about the sternum and spine, I knew she was going to have me do some poses facing the class and some facing away, most likely with a bit of a twist. Or when she discussed the hips and pelvis, I knew that I’d be asked to do a contrapposto pose (where you put most of your weight on one side of your body—like in Michelangelo’s David). Or if discussion pertained to the knees, I’d come up with a pose that would let me keep the knees bent at different angles for the students.

It’s a really amazing feeling. To be able to have someone talk about the body’s various, wonderful landmarks, and then you become the conduit–the human machine that gets to be able to bring these landmarks to life for others. It seems so simple, but it’s really quite profound when you’re able to be the instrument that showcases the marvels of the human body to students—especially beginners!

As I’ve said many times before, it’s these small, simple, intangible moments that make me proud to be able to humbly do what it is that I do 🙂

Wednesday Night Lights

Just got done working a Wednesday evening gig for Ricardo over at VisArts–the way the lights were set up, it almost felt like I was in the end zone of a football field, at least that’s the way the lights looked as they were shining down on me! And I’d like to think that the racket coming from the tavern several stories below were the hometown fans 🙂 But it was really a fun gig to work. When you have gigs like that, it almost feels like you’re taking money from people! I mean, how many people can honestly say that they get paid to do something they love? It does a hell of a lot for your self-confidence. That sounds counter-intuitive, doesn’t it? You’re completely naked in front of people, some (or all) of whom you’ve never met before, and it’s something that most people would NEVER want to do in the first place. But for us models, it makes us feel like we’re on the top of the world because it’s something we enjoy doing. Hell, for me I’d even wager to say it’s life-affirming. I feel a sense of joy and peace when I’m on the podium. Hopefully you feel this way too.

And unlike playing football, it was nice to be able to finish two and-a-half hours’ worth of work without feeling like I had to play through the pain. In fact, I tweaked my lower back a bit on my way to the studio, and the pose I was in was stretching that part of my body out. So nice to be paid to do physical therapy 🙂 But more often than not, by the time a gig is over, there’s at least one part of my body that’s ready to scream “uncle!,” and when I roll out of bed the following morning, the soreness I have immediately reminds me of what I was doing the day before.

Next post: about a month ago, I got to work a group gig–OUTDOORS! That was always number one on my modeling bucket list, and it was so nice to be able to have the chance to do it surrounded by really good artists and models! Stay tuned!

It’ll Scare Your Pants Off

Imagine my amusement when I went to click on my news app just now and found this article:

http://www.today.com/news/naked-scared-haunted-house-welcomes-nude-thrill-seekers-4B11245316

“A new attraction at a Pennsylvania “scream” park aims to scare the pants off thrill-seekers before they even enter it.

Shocktoberfest, a “haunted scream park” in Sinking Spring, Pa., has added an attraction called the “Naked and Scared Challenge.’’ For $20 per person, participants can experience the haunted house while being completely naked.”

Pretty neat, but with me not having a car and not really feeling terribly keen on renting one to drive almost three hours, I doubt I’ll be checking it out. Still, it seems like a really cool idea. And who knows? I may just work up the desire to trek out there on a cool Autumn weekend.

I mean, let’s face it: I’ve mentioned several times in my blog about the fact that you’re in a potentially vulnerable situation whenever you remove your clothes and pose in front of strangers. And sometimes even experienced models such as myself still get nervous on occasion.

So now couple that vulnerability with the actual terrors you’d hope to get at a haunted house! You’re probably going to be terrified far beyond the level you would be going with your clothes on 🙂 I think it’d definitely put your emotions through the wringer, but in a good way. After all, you’re conquering two traditional fears virtually everyone has: fear of being naked, and fear of the unknown.

A few days ago, I was reading Dan’s modeling blog (Dan is a pro art model in Texas who’s been modeling way, way longer than I could ever hope to, and it’s always interesting to read about his modeling adventures!) where he discussed the possibility of him being able to appear on Naked and Afraid, the TV show that inspired this variation to the quintessential October haunted house.

At any rate, there’s no takeaway from this. Just thought it’d be cool to share these stories with you 😉

All Night Long

That’s how long I felt I could keep going after my last gig. It was amazing! I held one long pose for most of the session, and I actually felt even better after the end of the session than I did before.

You see, I did a session the night before over at the Hillyer, and as stated in a previous post, I really did a number on my lower back. The poses weren’t even anything particularly wild or crazy, but as you model, you’ll notice that sometimes even if you do a relatively simple pose, you can really put your body through the ringer.

As I got to my session at VisArts (organized by Ricardo Pontes), I was a little bit nervous as my back was still tight as a drum, and I was afraid the state of my muscles was going to interfere with my poses. I met with the coordinator, Martin, and made small talk with him as I have a painful habit of showing up royally early to gigs (I am terribly, horribly afraid of being late, and I’d rather arrive an hour early than even five minutes late).

He cautioned me that there were a lot of artists who said they weren’t going to be able to make it. This isn’t terribly unusual. In fact, I’ve found that late summer gigs tend to foster a sparse turnout because people are trying to squeeze their vacations into the waning days of summer (I’ve also noticed that if a gig happens to be during the first good day of Spring, there will similarly be low turnout). But I told him I’m happy to model for one person or one hundred, and truth be told, I find smaller gigs to be more intimate in the sense that there’s enhanced collaboration between artist and model, and sometimes we deviate from the proposed schedule of poses to accommodate what people in the room want.

At VisArts, we typically do five 5-minute poses followed by one long pose for 20 minutes for the rest of the session. Martin asked me if I’d be up for a kneeling pose for the long pose, or if that would be difficult, and I told him that, in all honesty, kneeling poses give my knees and back grief for more than a few minutes. I hate to have to say things like that, but I know that if I hold a kneeling pose for 10 minutes, towards the end my legs and back are bucking like a bronco, and I know I won’t be able to give my best. While I always say that you should, to the extent feasible, do the poses that are suggested for you, you need to know your own body and its limitations and to work with the coordinator or professor to come up with a pose that works for the two of you.

Martin was totally sympathetic and suggested a seated pose, which we agreed to hash out after the five minute poses, at which point I’d get a quick break and then get ready for the long pose.

To my surprise, we had plenty of artists turn out! I’d say around 10 or so, which was a lot more than Martin or I were anticipating. In fact, I recognized three people from the previous night at the Hillyer come out to VisArts. I don’t think that’s ever happened before. I mean occasionally I’ll run into someone that’s drawn me at one venue and I see at another venue in the future. But not the next day, and not three people! And VisArts is a decent hike from downtown DC where the Hillyer is located, so I was pleasantly surprised to see them again.

When 6:30 rolled around, I dropped my robe and got down to business. For the five minute poses, I did four standing poses and one seated one. Oh man, my back was absolutely KILLING me 😦 At the end of the last pose, I think I got out of position as soon as the timer went off, which is something that I almost never do.

Martin decided I should do a pose sitting upright on a chaise, and I’d splay my legs and put a decent twist into the pose. I would be seated with my rump against the very back of the chaise, sitting up straight.

This was easily the most comfortable pose I’ve ever been in! In fact, Martin was initially a bit concerned about it, asking me several times if this pose was kosher for me and if I’d be comfortable holding it for the rest of the session (with breaks every 20 minutes, of course).

I kid you not, as soon as I got into pose, the pose I was in stretched out every single muscle that was aching. It felt amazing! Each 20 minute segment just flew by, like it was only five minutes in length.

In fact, after I started to take off my robe for the last segment, I noticed we had 30 minutes left. So I told Martin I could go for the last half hour if he was okay with it. He asked me if I wanted to go for 15 minutes, shake out real quick, and then got into pose again, and I told him I could hold it for the full 30 minutes.

That last 30 minutes went by so fast it felt even quicker than the 20 minute segments!

And when I got out of pose at the end of the night, I had no pain anymore. None. At all. That’s really never happened to me. Even when you have good nights where you give amazing poses and don’t really feel any severe pain, you’ll typically find your body to be stiff for a few minutes afterwards. But I felt perfectly fine. My pain was all gone.

I really felt that I could have kept on going for a few more hours, as I was having a great time, was in absolutely no pain, and really didn’t have any gigs on the radar screen (still don’t for the most part, though I suspect I’ll be getting busy shortly as art schools start booking models).

I never talked about why I call this blog Jason and the Golden Pose. Part of it is a silly take-off of Jason and the Golden Fleece. But I always wondered what it would be like to hold a pose that caused me no pain. To where I’d be able to get back into pose time and time and time again to the point where I’d feel just as good walking out of the session as I did coming into it.

It’s always a special thing when you work a gig and your body feels good when you leave for the day. When you feel you can keep on going and in fact feel a bit sad that the session has to come to an end and you have to get back in your civilian attire and go back home.

That’s what it felt like this night. That I could go on all night long and be perfectly content and at peace doing so 🙂