Hello 2008!!!
Happy New Year everyone! Well, I’m posting a little prematurely but no big deal, right? Never too early to express joy, optimism, enthusiasm, and good cheer I always say.
I can’t speak for all bloggers, but I for one have really been enjoying Museworthy; writing the posts, sharing the thoughts and experiences, and displaying the art images. And I feel a connection with my readers, some of whom are my friends and family, some of whom are anonymous strangers, artists, and researchers, or simply Internet surfers looking for some visual stimulation. It’s all good.
What’s in store for the New Year? Who knows? I don’t make resolutions, but I’m sure 2008 will hold the creation of more art, more beauty, more inspiration, and a hell of a lot more nudity. Ah, the life of an artist’s model!
So I was considering images, and I shamelessly decided on one of myself, not because I’m a narcissist, but because it is a nude figure (always the preference here at Museworthy) and because it was done, once again, by my friend Fred Hatt. Plus it looks festive and fun and exciting; an appropriate New Year’s tribute. And since it was a killer pose for my lower back, I thought I’d bid farewell to 2007 with an acknowledgement of my hard work. If anyone wants to know how Fred and I set this up, don’t ask! Let’s just say it involved a makeshift bean bag chair contraption and a strong comfort level between two friends. Click for full view.
My sincerest wishes for all things beautiful and passionate in the New Year! Peace friends . . .
Nude Figure Fix from Robert Henri
Hope you all had a joyous, fun-filled holiday! Mine was great fun. I still have another week to go before I return to work and, as predicted, I’m experiencing an uncomfortable detachment from art modeling - the work I love. I miss it. WAAAAAAAHH! Ok, that was childish. Sorry.
But no need for me to get all twisted up and antsy. After all, I have this blog, and a nice art post should hold me over temporarily. Specifically, a nice post with an image of an exquisitely rendered nude figure. Enter Robert Henri.
What a great painter. Henri was born in Cincinnati, but ended up settling in Philadelphia. He was first cousin to Mary Cassatt, another great American artist. Henri painted a lot of life subjects, using friends, family, and people he knew as sitters, along with professional models. Always a good idea to use variety, I think. He was a member of the National Academy of Design (one of my current places of employment) and from 1915 - 1927 taught at the Art Students League in New York (one of my former places of employment). Henri was, interestingly, good friends with Emma Goldman, the famous anarchist. She even sat for a portrait once!
However, the following painting is most certainly NOT Emma Goldman. The model is Doris Trautman and I was unable to find any information about her at all. In any case, she made a lovely model for Henri’s work here, more like a nude “portrait”. His colors are amazing, and Doris has an intriguing, almost haunting, presence.
Beloved Dog
Hi friends. It might have seemed like I disappeared for several days. Hate to go so long without posting. But I did go away, in a sense. Grieving the loss of my family’s dog, Gracie, who passed away the other night. I adopted Gracie almost 14 years ago when she was just a two-month old puppy, and due to my moving around, living in small aprtments, etc, she ended up permanently with my mother, in her nice spacious house and big backyard.
Gracie was absolutely the greatest dog, ever! A gentle, sweet, down-to-earth Shepard/Husky mixed breed, with big almond eyes and brindle coloring. She was a dainty little lady! Docile, even-tempered, full of warmth and affection. A superb loving pet to all.
She had been gradually deteriorating over the past year or so; cataracts, dysplasia, walking slowly and laboriously, her faculties failing; all the usual symptoms of an aging dog. It was hard to watch sometimes. Finally she succumbed, and luckily both my mother and I were there to comfort and console her in her final hours. We didn’t have to put her down. She went on her own. But it was painful to see that adorable little angel of a dog in such a distressed and helpless state.
Sorry if I’ve depressed everyone! All of you who know me personally know that I am a huge animal lover, and I’ve been crying a lot over Gracie these past few days. But I promise I will be back very soon with my usual posts about art, art modeling, beauty and inspiration!
In the meantime, love to Gracie! A very Museworthy dog if there ever was one!
Gracie
1994 - 2007
R.I.P.
At Work in the Studio
Art models have the good fortune to see themselves constantly through the eyes of artists. We are brought to life with brush strokes, pencil lines, shadowy smudges of charcoal and pastel, and the vivid color values of watercolor and oil paint. It’s always wonderful to see the work. It’s less often that we can see ourselves as we look posing; the way we actually look up on the platform. Now we are a pretty uninhibited bunch, for obvious reasons. But even art models have self-conscious moments. I, for one, wonder from time to time if I’m holding the pose well on a consistent basis, and worry if my arm shifted or is my back slouching from fatigue, or was my thigh turned more inward before the break, or if I’m having a bad hair day (hate those!).
So I got a real kick out of this photograph of me sent by my friend Tai. It was taken in Sharon Sprung’s painting class a couple of months ago. He took it as a reference picture for his painting. Here I am in Studio 2 at the National Academy, and you can bet that I have scrutinized it thoroughly to make sure I am projecting enough poise and strength to satisfy my incredibly high standards! (tee hee). Considering this picture was taken on, I think, the 9th day of a 10 day pose, I’d say it’s pretty good. Museworthy, baby!!
Three Days Off
72 hours without posing - that’s unusual for me and my normally full schedule. The school years are winding down for the holidays, and even the weekly drawing groups take a hiatus until after New Year’s. People leave town, go to visit family. I, however - hard-core native New Yorker that I am - will stick it out here in the Big Apple for the holiday duration. I plan to enjoy the days off without experiencing too much separation anxiety from art modeling. Can’t guarantee, though. Might just strip off my clothes and climb onto a rock somewhere in a public place to get a little attention. Just kidding!
These three days off were not by accident, but of my own design. It started Thursday night, when I attended the closing reception for the late Marvin Franklin’s art exhibit at the Martin Luther King Jr Labor Center. Amazing show! Marvin’s work never ceases to impress, from his watercolors to his etchings to his pen drawings. Marvin’s family and loved ones were there, Dan Gheno, Sam Goodsell, Harvey Dinnerstein, and many others from the Art Students League all came out to support Marvin’s work and legacy.
I took Friday off on purpose, as it was a special, poignant, emotional day for me and my family. It marked the three year anniversary of my father’s death. My Mom, my brother and I went to visit his grave in New Jersey, where we placed a card and Christmas wreath at his headstone. We spoke to him, gave our love, and shared an intimate family bonding moment.
Later that day, I helped out at the NYCares Coat Drive at the Virgin Megastore in Union Square. We collected a lot of coats, but the donations are ongoing throughout the month of December, so I’m sure the final tally will be substantial. New Yorkers are more generous than they get credit for.
Saturday I met Fred Hatt for lunch in Union Square. So good to see him as always. He gave me some helpful tips for posting images on my blog. And then I took part in what is a yearly ritual for me; I went to Strawberry Fields in Central Park to commemorate the death of John Lennon. Can you believe it’s been 27 years? I bought a sweet bouquet of pink and yellow roses at the farmer’s market in Union Square before I headed uptown. When I got there, it took me a while to wiggle my way to the Imagine circle, as it was already mobbed and surrounded by devout Lennon fans. I made it just close enough to toss the bouquet onto the circle, and I nailed it precisely into the only space still free. Perfect aim! The circle was completely covered, and it was nothing short of radiant; illuminated with candle pillars, tealight candles, and flowers galore covering like a carpet of petals and stems, and pictures, notes and mementos strewn about. Musicians brought their instruments, and we sang the night away, standing in the cold in Strawberry Fields, with the dark facade of the Dakota just yards away across the street. It’s a great building, but in that setting during that specific event, to me it looks somber, ominous, forbidding. Like a big evil monster glaring down at us from Central Park West.
And today, Sunday, was a mixed housechores and shopping day with Mom. Getting a headstart on holiday festivities. Tomorrow I’m back to work at what will be my last full week of modeling before the winter recess. I have Susan Shatter’s watercolor class at the National Academy, Ellen Eagle’s drawing class, a private pose downtown, a drawing group here in Queens, and a standby shift at SVA. Not bad. Glad I managed to book a steady week this time of December, as the money will be helpful for gift-buying, decorations, and food!
So these days were spent with family - in both joy and grief, friends - in both joy and grief, strangers - in both joy and grief. Wow. I just realized that consistency as I typed it this second. Life and loss; joys and sorrows, felt concurrently. So goes the human condition. And it always seems to come into particularly sharp focus during holiday time, doesn’t it?
Thanks for reading, friends. See you again very soon.
Olympia - the muse, the model, the woman
We take requests here at Museworthy, yes we do. My Aunt Iris is an artist, an art teacher in the New York City public schools for over three decades, and a High School of Music and Art and Hunter College alum. She suggested I do a post of Manet’s “Olympia” on this blog. Now I am quite familiar with this famous painting and have never been too crazy about it. Always knew it was beautiful from an artistic and technical standpoint, but still found it too “bourgeois” for my taste, not to mention a little racist with the black maid doting on a white whore. What can I say? I’m a pain in the ass.
But little did I know what a fascinating and interesting discovery awaited me as I embarked upon my research of the model. Her name was Victorine Meurent, a French painter herself and popular artist’s model of her day. She was a muse to Manet, of course, as the subject of “Olympia”, “Luncheon on the Grass”, and many others. She also posed for Degas and Toulouse-Lautrec, who used to introduce her as “Olympia” (I would have slapped him if he did that to me).
She is posed in “Olympia” as a high-class prostitute, with a bit of attitude I’d say. When the painting was exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1865, society’s prudes unleashed their usual torrent of indignant hysteria, calling the painting “vulgar”, “immoral”, and “offensive”. Sounds like something that could still happen in some parts of America today. Calling John Ashcroft!
But Victorine was no prostitute in real life. She supported herself as an artists’ model while she created paintings of her own, which were very well-received. She exhibited several times at the Paris Salon and in the 1876 juried show, her works were accepted while, get this, Manet’s were all rejected! Oh snap!!! Ouch. And it’s interesting that not long after Manet’s terrible humiliation of seeing his model’s paintings being chosen over his, that he and Victorine were professionally estranged from then on. Hmmm. A male artist guilty of macho, sexist, competitive jealousy? Never heard of such a thing. ::wink::
Anyway, it’s wonderful to know that an accomplished, hardworking (as both artist AND model) woman is behind such famous and iconic works of art, most of which depict her as a sex object. What irony.
Victorine Meurent died in 1927 and, unfortunately, most of her own work is either missing or destroyed, which is a terrible shame.
Here is “Olympia”, which hangs today in the Musee d’Orsay in Paris. After viewing it, keep scrolling for a much more “human” portrait of the real woman Victorine, rather than some fantasy courtesan. Second portrait is also by Manet. I love her face.
