So I take an art class on sundays at the art students league downtown. I do a life drawing class, where the models are clothed. Last sunday when I went, a 20-ish looking model, who later find out's name is Bobby. Though he certainly doesn't look like a Bobby. He's wearing a Jim Morrison T-shirt and gray skinny-ish jeans. He eases himself into the chair se tup for him, slumping comfortably. And then, all of a sudden, the door opens, and another model comes in! This is unexpected, but all taken in stride, as it happens often. This model is a fifty-something woman, dress with this wonderful flowing purple skirt. She has such good posture, that we ask her and find out that she used to be a dancer. Now she comes in, and the monitors (who help around with the models) jokingly suggest she sit on Bobby's lap. And Jokingly, she complies. But then the monitors like it, and we (the artists) all begin to laughingly draw them, the woman sitting in Bobby's lap. The two of them reminded me of the movie
Harold and Maude. Old movie, but great. It's about this 17 or 18 year old boy who falls in love with this woman old enough to be his grandmother. It's far from creepy though, it's heart-warming in an un-phony, un-disney way. But anyways, we drew the models. Quite hard, actually, to capture such a pose.
So we left, and when we came back the next week, our model is a large black woman who's name, I believe, was Tunisia. She settles herself in a chair and we begin drawing something of a boring pose. And then, who walks in the door but Bobby, who we had never thought we would see again! "hey Bobby, Hi Bobby," we all say, and one of the monitors leave to get another lamp for him. He comes back, carrying a small statue that looks kind of like a Venus De Milo thing. "well," he says, "I didn't find another lamp but I did find another model!" And sets her up, too. We are all smiling at this point. And now, as it can't get much funnier, the woman comes back as well, proclaiming that they didn't need her in the other class and she was told to come to this one! This time, she gets her own stool to sit on, and drapes her arms around Bobby's neck, and we all draw the scene lay out for us.
Title Quote: Elysian Fields, Queen of the Meadow
