you’ll never guess what i did last night…

I sat for an artist friend so she could paint me!  How neat is that?!

Alix Martin is the owner of redFISH (a studio here in the village) and is also the one working on the mural for the co-op, which is how I met her.  After we’d gotten to know each other a little bit, she asked if I would sit for her.  Of course I would!  I was really looking forward to it and, finally, our schedules synced up enough to get together for a few hours last night while Andrew played rec volleyball at the middle school here.

(Before I get too far, can we just take a minute to check out my arms…I worked really hard for those!)

Such a neat experience!  We met at her studio–I LOVE it!  As you can see in the photo, there is color everywhere and it’s got a very bohemian vibe.

You can see a little of her work in the photos; she paints all sorts of “real” things (like birds or people or landscapes), but manages to give them whole new life with color and texture and movement.  It’s totally my speed in terms of art; I’m not drawn to traditional (think the landscapes 99.9% of the population have hanging on their walls), impressionism (while it’s beautiful and I like water lillies and ballerinas as much as the next person, it’s still not “me”) or super-modern (Picasso was brillant, but he’s not going anywhere in my house!) pieces at all.  Of the classical painters, I suppose Van Gogh is one I like, but more for his use of color than texture.

My taste in art is kinda like my taste in style–very classic and minimalist, but with unexpected and non-traditional pops of color or other eclectic pieces thrown in.  We recently had the Elmwood Festival of the Arts here in Buffalo (which is HUGE, by the way), and Alix designed the cover of the brochure–you can see it here.

And, in the interest of journalistic integrity, I DID take it all off….

…and it was SO EASY.  Seriously.  Although I’ll admit–with my background growing up (my mom often said, “Who cares? We’re all girls” in situations like locker rooms, or just changing clothes in general) and in the military (hello communal showers!)–my “shyness” is pretty limited.  I mean, you just do what you have to do, and anyone who showers and changes regularly at a busy gym can attest to that.

And Alix is a friend; I don’t know if I would have felt as comfortable with a total stranger.  We worked up to it; I posed with the slip for most of the 2.5 hour session, then she did some quick sketches au natural.  I’ll have to go back for her to finish the primary piece, and I’m hoping to do more in the future.  I mean, we chatted the whole time; it turns out she and her husband built a totally recycled/reclaimed house here in the village three years ago that’s going to be featured in the Buffalo News in a month or so, and we commiserated together about non-traditional families and the challenges they present.

To his credit, I think Andrew was more nervous about the whole “me-posing-nude” idea than I was.  (And he’s going to flip when he sees I used one of her snapshots of it here.  Sorry honey, but it tells the story and is very tasteful.)  The truth is, it’s art (heck, these iPhone photos are art in and of themselves!) and it’s beautiful.  I was so honored she asked me to pose and it was an opportunity for me to get out of my comfort zone and try something new.

I’m just glad I lost all that weight BEFORE she asked me to pose for her…