Shaking things up

I am working on shifting things in my life....picking things that feed me creatively, giving myself the gift of space to think and breathe.
It has been four months since my surgery, and I am methodically working on creating a new to-do list and ditching the stuff that shouldn't matter any more.

 

 

Step one:

Get back into the figure drawing open studio class.

It is a two hour period, and I have access to a model, and can just sit and draw.

No teacher telling me if this or that is right or wrong.

Just me in a mind space of drawing and no judgement.

A gift of time to do or not do whatever comes to me.

I have been in figure drawing classes since I was in high school. A couple friends and I had special permission to leave school to take college drawing classes and then return to school for the rest of our classes. It was a great introduction to the freedom outside the high school walls and we felt far more mature than our classmates. After all we got to sit and draw naked people for credit.

Before heading into the lab, I texted a friend that I took classes with back in the day, telling her I was anxious about drawing...she sent back a text

" just like the ol' days, watch out for the crazy penises"

***

 

Let me explain:

In one of the first classes, a male model sat down in front of me,

spread eagle and posed for an hour.

Some would say he was simply sitting....I think he was showing off.

I was taken aback and was acting as cool as I could.

Sharpening my pencil, looking for the right charcoal...looking at lines of the body...

but I could hear my friends giggle behind me and we were all trying our best to be

mellow and all copacetic with the scene, you know...

OWN the fact that we were there for a reason and a purpose.

 Well I drew, and as I got to his crotch his penis moved.

Not huge amounts like a sword battle, more like it rolled this way and then when I came back to that part of the drawing it had moved another bit...so I erased the first position and re-drew...well this went on for another half and hour.

Needless to say, by the end of the pose, it looked like something exploded in his crotch.

my poor drawing.

My instructor just smirked and said nothing.

I was mortified and vowed to never sit that close again...I never have.

Needless to say, that day created a reputation for myself amongst my peers and NOW we all joke about the penis with the mind of its own.

I have a million figure drawing stories...that one just mostly set the bar for the next 25years

The figure model at my most recent class; she works at my local grocery store and spent a good portion of the time chatting while posing.

She had been stacking apples all day.