We’re all familiar with the famous maxim by Confucius, “Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.”. I connect with that saying perhaps more than the average person. Regular readers of this blog have heard me affirm my love of art modeling and express an enduring sentiment of gratitude for this profession: how it changed my life for the better seven years ago and pulled me out of a bad place. Those feelings hold true even at the end of a day like today – after a six hour standing contrapposto pose, followed by another three hours of portrait sitting. Right now, at a little before midnight, home and exhausted, with a still-throbbing right hip, an achy heel and calf muscle, ratty hair from the abuse of a too-tight ponytail, and drained of energy, I am still a shining example of Confucius’ wise words. I have a job I love. As I left the Long Island Academy of Fine Art tonight, a student called to me just as I was going out the door, “Claudia, you’re an amazing model! Thanks for your hard work today.”. The class members felt they were lucky to have me. Little do they know how lucky I am to have them 
Bouguereau’s Atelier at the Académie Julian, Paris, by Jefferson David Chalfant, 1891:
