Spirited Bodies

Meeting the Team in Water Colour

This Thursday 6th September is a chance to meet the Spirited Bodies team if you would like to model at one of our events. We will be at The Leather Bottle, 538 Garratt Lane, SW17 0NY from 7 – 9pm. The nearest overground station is Earlsfield and the nearest underground station is Tooting Broadway. We will occupy a table and place a ‘Spirited Bodies’ sign on it. You may recognise us from the photos in; https://spiritedbodies.com/2012/08/25/mall-reunion/

When I was catching up with Caron Clarke on Saturday as I modelled for her group in Crystal Palace, she showed me some of her beautiful water colours.

IMAG0830 — One of the best models we know, Lidia who has life modelled around the world

IMAG0825 — Lidia is known for being a very special person and an incredible model

Caron runs weekly long pose sessions with a model usually returning for 2 – 3 weeks, on Saturday afternoons at her studio in Crystal Palace. She will soon be resuming her more experimental weekly classes, now on a Friday evening, from October she expects. She tutors at this class in which she specialises in taking artists/students out of their comfort zone and showing them a new way for which they are ultimately grateful! (See this post from last year; https://spiritedbodies.com/2011/06/15/mountain-of-strength/) NB Caron no longer operates from Antenna Studios but from her new space at Gipsy Hill Workshops – http://www.caronclarkeartistandlifedrawing.com/

We will be answering questions and giving advice to new models at the meeting on Thursday. We are mainly preparing at this stage for the October 20 event at Battersea Arts Centre for which we have a requirement to find models connected with the borough of Wandsworth. In addition we are particularly looking for female models and there will be a women only life modelling preparation workshop coming up.

Men will be taking part in the event too, but we do hear considerably more from male applicants.

Local Meetings & Workshop for Women

Three Standing Figures by Henry Moore (1947–49... — Three Standing Figures by Henry Moore (1947–49) erected at Battersea Park in London. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

: Cover of Calendar Girls

Finding the Women of Wandsworth Mums http://www.wowmums.org.uk/ accidentally as I dropped into Rollo Business Centre on the Doddington & Rollo Estate near Battersea Park felt like a sizeable piece of the jigsaw fell into place.

Some of the WoW Mums took part in Nic Green’s performance art piece involving 50 women dancing naked, 2 years ago at BAC – where our next event takes place. So I feel hopeful that our artistic nude opportunity may appeal.

Also on the trail of Wandsworth women I discovered that Southside Players http://www.southsideplayers.org.uk/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1, a local amateur dramatics group are due to perform Calendar Girls shortly after our event, nearby in Balham. The script is about to be released for hire for just a year and has subsequently been snapped up by 250 am-dram companies.

I am thinking of doing a naked workshop for women focussing on feeling empowered in the nude. Returning to a women only format feels apt whatever the men say. Too many women are put off by the presence of men and there needs to be a space to not be distracted by them.

I would like to do a mixed workshop as well, with a slightly different emphasis being on posing as a group and the art of life modelling. It’s still about being empowered in the nude, however – it doesn’t matter how many people point out that men have body issues too. We would need more funding to reach more of the guys with really major body issues. It’s more immediately possible for us to connect with the women. In any case we are an organic entity, ever shifting with inputs from different people and at the right time when we may reach those men and women who may benefit most from us, we will surely have a man on the team equipped for that episode.

Lucy has been active on her local forum – StreetLife – and is recruiting from within since she is a Wandsworth resident, among several of her networks. She will organise a meeting soon for potential participants to meet us and ask questions etc.

Images were taken by Lucy at the Hesketh Hubbard exhibition last week.

Sophie Pecko - 'Girl in the Mall' — Morimda

Mall Reunion

Last Monday Lucy, Morimda and I met up again for the first time since Spring 2011; we were at the Private View of an exhibition of work done by Hesketh Hubbard – the organisation of artists who first hosted Spirited Bodies when Morimda originally set it up in Autumn 2010.

Most of the art was figurative and we recognised many of the models in the pictures, some of whom were also there in person.

Lucy took pictures of the artworks and we asked a tipsy artist to take a few snaps of us;

It’s been a hectic couple of weeks; I dropped out of a long pose at The Slade because my Mum was more ill than usual, and I wanted to concentrate more on Spirited Bodies. Not that you can tell from this blog, but there’s a lot going on behind the scenes at the moment as we begin postering the borough of Wandsworth and engaging with local communities about life modelling and body image.

We are getting a small amount of funding from Wandsworth Council which ties us to sourcing models from the borough. I am enjoying this challenge more than I expected to. Having a reason to find local people especially women (we still hear from so many more men) brings us back to what it’s all about – reaching out to people who might not otherwise know about us or consider such an activity.

Here are some more artworks – hover over to see the name of the artist and the piece.

Michael Richardson - 'Catherine' — I like to smile when I model too!

Nick Hope - 'untitled' — lovely pose – possibly Matthew

Jack Richards - 'Paris in London' — Looks like a rooftop of sirens!

Lucy Rickards - 'Girl Piper' — I love Lucy’s pottery, I have 3 of her bowls

Matthew Oghene — Matthew has various projects; http://www.thematthewevent.com/ quite a model to watch out for. I recently worked with him at The Slade, he is such a sweet guy!

This is Tansy who first life modelled at the 1st Spirited Bodies when she was 17. Now she is a pro and an excellent photographic model – http://tansyblue.tumblr.com/

Part 3: A Woman in Transition

L1000295 — Liz painted by artist Stan Blatton in her 1st life modelling job after Spirited Bodies

It took Morimda years to have the courage to tell people what she did as a life model. Liz does not have that burden but in her life she will not tell many about this new side of her. This information is restricted to the few who are from that art world of like minded people. Liz has a cover like a mask – her normal job which is what the rest of the world may know about her.

For 20 years she was unhappy in her job and did not address the fact that artistic and sporty sides to her were not being fulfilled. She now approaches life modelling as a slightly older woman who is generally less confident about her body, and she experiences a shift as she accepts her own nudity.

Liz was pleased to find other professionals (as in not life models) taking part in Spirited Bodies. It suggested she may be with others experiencing something similar; the ennui of working life and the duality of clashing worlds. Her drama teacher has told her she is too controlled, so partly through life modelling she aims to be freer.

She also thinks that as she gets older she will become more interested in nude modelling, to face the challenge of continuing to love herself. Now that she has found this joy that makes her feel special, she does not want it to end. She says there is a need for more images of both naked and clothed older women to emerge and proliferate.

In her drama class she has met lots of people her age with professions who like her, crave change to something more spiritual in their lives. Spirited Bodies she says, is a bit like acting, as when life modelling/acting, the social mask is off. You must be yourself and that has a big appeal.

The shift in Liz started to happen a few years ago when living in another country from her best friend – her sister – she realised she was unhappy with her job, and her sister was there to advise her. A spiritual teacher was visiting her home town and giving classes to her sister. Each week on the phone information was shared.

She noticed that her ‘friends’ judged people by where in London they lived, and when she told them she was doing an acting course it was a huge shock for them and they had no encouragement for her. She says another course would have been acceptable in gardening or sewing for example, but acting was considered a waste of time as it ‘should’ be something pursued when younger. At her age people judged she ought to have settled more. Instead she is still curious to explore.

“My career is about knowing myself and being happy”, she told bewildered former friends!

Her drama teacher told the class, “If you came here to learn how to act, you came to the wrong place.” Instead acting is about stripping away the mask.

L1000294 — Liz allowing her bottom to take a prominent position, which always she was ashamed of before

With many thanks to Liz and Morimda

Part 2 of my Interview with a New Model & more images from Notting Hill

I always find it refreshing to hear from those newer to life modelling what it is they find so exciting about it. For Liz it was many things – the way that modelling encourages you to be just the way you are. Whichever body type you are, that is what you accentuate. You cannot hide from yourself. She has long felt her bottom to be too large, disproportionate to the rest of her figure. As a life model her bottom becomes a feature which artists consider her best part, to be shown off.

Liz has only modelled twice; once at Spirited Bodies and once for an artist who met her at Mortlake. She likes the way it makes you want to look after your body so that you do feel good about presenting it. This is a positive side effect I agree, and something I sometimes forget. It’s nice to be maintaining my body not just for myself or a lover, but for all the people I work with too.

A greater interest in art was another plus offset by life modelling Liz found. She wants to see what artists look for and what has been done before.

She has a strong idea about the professionalism involved in life modelling, largely due to being advised by Morimda. She says that the model should never embarress an artist. Many poses for example, could be erotic or not depending on your facial expression. By behaving in a very straight way, you avoid any confusion or awkwardness. This is again something I have just gotten used to. Life modelling I think has allowed me to regain a sort of innocence, since I am not about making erotic art particularly but do love to be expressive and am naturally quite a sexy person. Thinking about it, that is a big gift, to be myself unselfconsciously.

At Spirited Bodies Liz says, you learn from watching others model. First you do a simple pose, then you see someone else do something more free and expressive. Now she thinks of asking artists what they would like to see in her. This is a good tactic; personally I have several ways I can pose or styles, and I know that some artists prefer natural looking poses while others like extremely posed positions. It can be worth checking how they roll or if there is something in particular they are looking for.

Liz feels more aware of her own beauty now because of displaying herself. She is always looking for new inspiration artistically, and she is enthused by the way that every artist can show her something new about herself. Just as every model brings a position out in different ways.

This piece will be continued, and here follows some more images from Spirited Bodies at Notting Hill Visual Arts Festival.