Wednesday, October 13, 2010

What is it with artists and naked people?


I walk to class every Monday and Wednesday through Mitchell Hall, home to many of the fine arts programs at UWM. The one thing I have noticed, aside from the din of african drumming emanating from the dance studios, is the preponderance of nude art lining the walls.

I realize the nude body is supposed to be a beautiful life form, but seriously, there are A LOT of nude pictures. I don't even know if you are supposed to call them pictures or if that is bourgeois. Point is, naked is apparently all the rage on the second floor.

And...it's not even good naked. It's often times disturbing naked.  I don't want to see that kind  of naked. Don't get me wrong, I like naked as much as the next person, after all, it's human nature. But I like the "happy, fun, and frolicking" naked - not the "gloomy, self-loathing, my life is horrendous so I am going to lay here in the fetal position" naked. So, to the budding UWM artists, please shy away from sad naked, because we could all use a little happy naked in our lives from time to time.

Thank you.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Having completed the Life Drawing classes back in the day, I completely agree with your take. One would imagine drawing naked people would be awesome, but it was pretty disturbing. The regular female model was awful - worn, weird shaped everything, and the more she tried posing, the less like a model she would look. I'm not saying all drawing models should be Elle MacPhereson (though it would be nice), but give us something to work with if we're required to draw a naked chick for 3 hours. Then, a dude shows up which is only fair, but he sits down, spreads open the pose, looks over at me and says, "Hey, Kiter!". Yes, I knew the dude & happened to be in sniffer's row that day. Here I am, forced to draw my naked acquaintance, who I will most likely see at our next house party. What am I supposed to say - "Hey, great work in class yesterday, but you could use some grooming down yonder." I was the one who wanted to crawl into the fetal position. Luckily, halfway through the semester, they changed models. The first one was quite smokin and I actually went on a couple dates with her. Come to find out, so did many of the other guys in the class. Overall, as an artist, I get the concept, but don't post the drawings all over the hallway walls. Nothing's worse than a bad drawing of a really bad bod.

Kiter