Naked part 2
The movie has yet to come to fruition in which I will be posing naked within. Making movies is not cheap and finances are tight, plus the director's car was broken into and much of the footage already shot not containing me was stolen. Fortunately for him the majority of his students have saved the information in bits and pieces, but it all has to be spliced together. Until further notice, my participation in the movie has been put on the back burner.
With that being said, there happened to be a few opportunities since then that have appeared since that have pushed me into the foreground of being naked for the sake of art. Deciding it would be best to ease oneself into the process rather than jump into the icy pond full force, I accepted the offers. I was even paid $20 for my time. Appropriately enough, the first time it happened was in a house which was in a state of disrepair in a sketchy neighborhood, but I was not a situation where I was being lead into a snuff film or a casting couch with some sweaty stranger on top of me. I was brought there by J who knew the guy. He wanted the two of us to be artist models for this series of paintings he was going to do. We wore our pjs for it. It was supposed to be, according to the artist, some kind of Oedipus story where the man was supposed to be loving a woman and she was being aloof and without much notice to the fact that he had his head buried thoroughly between the woman's breasts. But I was wearing a wife beater, and I was playing with my cell phone. I could not help but think of all those hilarious memes recently created of a family holiday dinner scene where the man of the house is standing before the Thanksgiving turkey about to carve it while he and all those around the table were on their iPhones and iPads. "We gather together." M said that he predicted I could literally have Morten on top of me and I would be doing just that over his shoulder. He only says that because he still has one of those hipster flip phones and refuses to upgrade because he only makes phone calls on his phone. But I digress ...
A mutual friend approached me months ago online and said that he was an experienced photographer and wanted me to come in and be part of his portfolio. I accepted the offer, and J came with me (because he knew him). Without going into too many details of the event itself, I thought it would be appropriate to approach this with a certain sense of humor so I brought in my Hatsune Miku costume I wore for Halloween 2012. I had a blue wig with two ponytails that clipped onto the sides of my head and came down to my knees. It is also very heavy unless I wear the chin strap that doesn't quite hold under my chin and is terribly painful, so I had to be careful with my head movements. The blue wig had a certain quality about it that I would otherwise not have had, it was so long I was able to hide behind the curtain for a bit. Eventually I got to the point (with some prompting from the photographer) to remove more and more. Soon, we got to the point where I had to decide "Am I going to do this or not?" and I decided "Yes I am" and soon the wig and everything else came off as well.
How did I feel? First, I felt comfortable with the surroundings and company in order to do this. I felt a high thinking that I had done what I set out to do, but I was surprisingly not ashamed or afraid to do it once the moment was upon me. Maybe I am too jaded or perhaps I have at last reached a point where I am comfortable enough with my own skin to do this. It was completely vain as well, I fully admit, and I felt awesome that I had done it. And the only thing that will be in any way airbrushed or altered will be the bruises on my legs, because I'm always having accidents and covered in mysterious black and blue marks which I have no memory of acquiring. Soon, the finished product will be in my hands, and then what? I'll keep them, and it will be something that I can always have for posterity. When I'm a crazy cat lady in my seventies, I could take it out and show these photos to someone and they'll say "That's YOU?!" and it will make me feel even better than I had they were shot when I was 40 instead of 20.
With that being said, there happened to be a few opportunities since then that have appeared since that have pushed me into the foreground of being naked for the sake of art. Deciding it would be best to ease oneself into the process rather than jump into the icy pond full force, I accepted the offers. I was even paid $20 for my time. Appropriately enough, the first time it happened was in a house which was in a state of disrepair in a sketchy neighborhood, but I was not a situation where I was being lead into a snuff film or a casting couch with some sweaty stranger on top of me. I was brought there by J who knew the guy. He wanted the two of us to be artist models for this series of paintings he was going to do. We wore our pjs for it. It was supposed to be, according to the artist, some kind of Oedipus story where the man was supposed to be loving a woman and she was being aloof and without much notice to the fact that he had his head buried thoroughly between the woman's breasts. But I was wearing a wife beater, and I was playing with my cell phone. I could not help but think of all those hilarious memes recently created of a family holiday dinner scene where the man of the house is standing before the Thanksgiving turkey about to carve it while he and all those around the table were on their iPhones and iPads. "We gather together." M said that he predicted I could literally have Morten on top of me and I would be doing just that over his shoulder. He only says that because he still has one of those hipster flip phones and refuses to upgrade because he only makes phone calls on his phone. But I digress ...
A mutual friend approached me months ago online and said that he was an experienced photographer and wanted me to come in and be part of his portfolio. I accepted the offer, and J came with me (because he knew him). Without going into too many details of the event itself, I thought it would be appropriate to approach this with a certain sense of humor so I brought in my Hatsune Miku costume I wore for Halloween 2012. I had a blue wig with two ponytails that clipped onto the sides of my head and came down to my knees. It is also very heavy unless I wear the chin strap that doesn't quite hold under my chin and is terribly painful, so I had to be careful with my head movements. The blue wig had a certain quality about it that I would otherwise not have had, it was so long I was able to hide behind the curtain for a bit. Eventually I got to the point (with some prompting from the photographer) to remove more and more. Soon, we got to the point where I had to decide "Am I going to do this or not?" and I decided "Yes I am" and soon the wig and everything else came off as well.
How did I feel? First, I felt comfortable with the surroundings and company in order to do this. I felt a high thinking that I had done what I set out to do, but I was surprisingly not ashamed or afraid to do it once the moment was upon me. Maybe I am too jaded or perhaps I have at last reached a point where I am comfortable enough with my own skin to do this. It was completely vain as well, I fully admit, and I felt awesome that I had done it. And the only thing that will be in any way airbrushed or altered will be the bruises on my legs, because I'm always having accidents and covered in mysterious black and blue marks which I have no memory of acquiring. Soon, the finished product will be in my hands, and then what? I'll keep them, and it will be something that I can always have for posterity. When I'm a crazy cat lady in my seventies, I could take it out and show these photos to someone and they'll say "That's YOU?!" and it will make me feel even better than I had they were shot when I was 40 instead of 20.
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