Un-covered

Sophomore Tanah Combs often finds herself naked in the middle of a classroom full of people staring at her, but it's not a bad dream. It's her job.\nCombs is paid $9.50 per hour and fills out a time card. But the job requirements involve being naked for three-hour intervals and staying completely still until her muscles start to tingle. Combs is a nude model for the Fine Arts department.\n"I've done modeling since I was a little girl, so I'm pretty comfortable with my body," Combs said.\nCombs started nude modeling because she thought it would be an easy job she could fit in between her classes. She said she was worried about what her parents would think, but said they were understanding.\n"I'm usually pretty modest in everyday life, so people think it's kind of ironic that I go out and get naked," Combs said.\nCombs has been modeling nude for about a year. She said the experience has given her the ability to handle any awkward situation. \n"The first time, I actually walked into the wrong classroom naked," Combs said, "It was a beginning class and they were supposed to be drawing plants and vases." \nAt first, Combs said she was worried about seeing art students outside the classroom setting and not knowing what to say. Once she encountered a student from class when she was on a blind date with someone who didn't know she was a model.\n"Someone came up to us at 'The Nutcracker' and asked, 'Hey, aren't you that girl who posed naked for our class?'" Combs said. "You have your awkward moments."\nWhen Combs first had to pose with another nude male model, she said she felt awkward, but now she feels comfortable around other models.\n"I didn't know where I was supposed to look," Combs said. "But you get used to seeing naked bodies walking around."\nSophomore Chris Bultman decided to apply to be a model when he saw an ad in the Indiana Daily Student.\n"I thought it would be crazy to do. So I tried it," Bultman said.\nModels change into robes in the bathroom before entering the classroom. The model removes his robe in front of the class and then learns the pose he needs to hold.\n"It was weird for the first five minutes," Bultman said. "You disrobe in front of strangers."\nBultman said he appreciates art more after being a model. He said he admires the work of the art students because he said he can't draw and hasn't done art since junior high. \n"Sometimes I think, 'Wow, do I really look like that?'" Bultman said.\nModels have the options of being next to a space heater and listening to music while posing. \n"It's always cold in the Fine Arts building," Bultman said.\nModels receive a break from posing every 25 minutes during the three-hour classes. Holding the poses can be a challenge, they say.\nSophomore Katherine Cochrun, who has been modeling for artists since high school, said she struggles with sitting still if she's been having a stressful day.\n"Sometimes you just want to get up and kick the wall because you're so tired of sitting," Cochrun said.\nSometimes body parts get sore or fall asleep during the posing, but Cochrun said she finds modeling to be a meditative experience. She started the job because she enjoys the process of art and seeing how different artists interpret her emotions and poses.\n"The body is a landscape in and of itself," Cochrun said.\nShe also wants to disprove the idea that being naked is automatically sexual. She said that modeling is a way to be naked in a nonsexual way.\n"Our society is kind of strange about nudity," Cochrun said. "It's always associated with sex."\nFine Arts professor Bonnie Sklarski said nudity is the last thing an artist thinks about when trying to draw the body because it is such a challenge.\n"It's so hard to get good at drawing the body; it takes years and years of practice," Sklarski said. "Most people when confronted with a model in a beginning drawing class are so intimidated because it's so hard."\nSklarski's classes focus on recreating human anatomy. Students draw and paint both live models and plaster casts made from cadavers with the skin removed so the muscle structures are visible.\n"When you get a living model, the first thing you notice is that it's impossible for them to be completely still," Sklarski said. "They're always slightly twisting to get more comfortable."\nDrawing a model who moves, even just a little bit, can be a challenge for artists. Sklarski said the process is a combination of perception and conception.\n"You have to use ideas as much as your eyes," Sklarski said. "What if the model moves? Before you could only see one eye, now you see both. What do you do? Do you change your drawing?"\nEven though the models' slight movements can be challenging to work with, artists are sympathetic toward the models' job. Sklarski suggests trying to stand perfectly still in a pose for 20 minutes to try to understand the challenge of being a model.\nJunior Kasey Branam, who started modeling for the art department last fall, said she feels strong when she's able to hold a difficult pose for a long time.\n"You feel empowered when you're done," Branam said. "Not just from the nude aspect, but for the ability to fight through something your body doesn't want to do."\nBranam said her peers seem impressed when they find out she models nude for art classes.\n"Sometimes they giggle," Branam said. "A lot of people say, 'Oh, I could never to that.'"\nBranam sees modeling as a unique opportunity to be immortalized in art.\n"There aren't many moments in your life where you can completely freeze a moment of yourself," Branam said. "My body can be turned into a piece of artwork"