Student bares all for art department
December 8, 2010
Being nude, even in our diverse and growing society, is something that most people would probably be uncomfortable with.
That’s just the opposite for Seth Cohen, junior news major, who currently employed as a nude model for Kent State’s art department.
The job description: pose naked and statue-like for a class of aspiring artists as they stare and draw you from almost any angle.
“It’s not so much being nude that’s difficult, it’s standing still,” Cohen said. “Which is really complicated from time to time.”
Nate Cordwell, visual communication design major, was on the other side of the easel last year.
He took Drawing I, but he didn’t draw nude models until the last couple weeks of the class.
“They work you up to drawing them,” Cordwell said.
He said it was a little awkward at first, but he got used to it after a couple classes of drawing nude subjects.
Cohen said he stands in one pose, encircled by art majors, for about 15 minutes, and then he is asked to stand in multiple other poses.
Cordwell said there was a time when a girl modeled nude for the class and fainted because her knees were locked while posing on stage under the hot lights.
“If you move, then it gets complicated for the people who are drawing you,” Cohen said.
Cohen’s friend introduced him to the idea of taking on a job as a nude model and told him it paid really well. She, too, is a nude model for the art department. She recommended him for the job, and he got it almost immediately.
“In order to have this job, you need to have confidence, otherwise you’re not going to be able to do the job at all, and it’s easy, just have self esteem and self confidence and you can do the job,” Cohen said.
Having never been a model before, Cohen said he tacks this on as being a side job to help pay the bills.
“Those guys really earn their money,” Cordwell said. “Number one, they are working in an extremely uncomfortable situation, and number two, they have to stand there and stay as still as possible.”
Cohen started working in early October and gets paid $12 an hour, usually working for about three hours a day.
Being called to model for a class is based on model seniority and what the instructor wants that day, whether it is male or female.
When asked how he felt about doing the usually uncomfortable job of nude modeling, he said, “I love it. Especially because as of now, I can finally put on my resume, Seth Cohen: a nanny for two babies and a nude model for the Kent State art department. I love it. It creates color.”
