How Making Art Taught Me to Love My Body

The way an artist looks at a model is unlike the way we look at one another in any other context. There is no judgment for the way a model compares with glossy magazine images or how they measure up to cultural beauty standards.

Read More

A Story About Drawing

It was Tuesday Night Drawing group. If it weren’t so sacrilegious to say, it was our church. We never missed a Tuesday, even during that terrible snow storm last year. I walked the mile into town to draw.

Read More

Finding Inspiration from Other Artists

I enjoy meeting new artists and seeing (new to me) work. A friend of mine with excellent aesthetic sensibilities introduced me to the work of sculptor Judy Fox.  Mesmerized? Haunted? Blown away? Spent hours listening to her lecture on Youtube? Oh yeah. Much of her work features children in poses that envoke iconic images from around the…

Read More

My Sweet Spot

I had a model out to the studio today for the first time in what feels like forever. It was, and usually is, challenging to position him in just the right way so that his figure had balance, tension, and was not too uncomfortable for. Once we identified the perfect pose, I moved the armature…

Read More

The Nude and the Christian

An essay I wrote in March, 2011.   As an artist who specializes in figurative sculpture, I have spent countless hours in the studio working with nude models. It is a time-honored practice in the Classical tradition, employed by artists throughout the centuries. Depictions of the nude are an important aspect in understanding the history…

Read More