QuickTake:

The Hybrid Gallery recently launched life-drawing sessions that specifically embrace models the traditional art world has often left out.

At Mikalina Kirkpatrick’s first-ever figure-drawing session, they were feeling a tad vulnerable.

“I was bare-butt naked up on the stage,” said Kirkpatrick, the community and creativity events programmer at The Hybrid Gallery. 

Kirkpatrick, who identifies as a “superfat” on the spectrum of plus-size body types, was a model for the gallery’s first body-positive figure-drawing session earlier this summer, where artists practice drawing from life with models who are plus-size, transgender or of other identities and appearances that traditional art-making can often exclude.

The sessions coincided with the gallery’s “Every Body” show in June, an art show with an open community call for art of different body types. Hybrid Gallery curator Gloria Udosenata said hosting figure-drawing sessions had been on the back burner, but the Every Body show was a natural time to introduce them.

The Whiteaker neighborhood gallery and event space has held three sessions so far at $10 per participating artist. Starting in September, sessions will be twice a month.

While life drawing is a tried and true part of art education, the Hybrid’s sessions make an intentional space for people with bodies of all kinds to feel safe being on display.

“I’ve attended several other figure-drawing events, and have mostly seen a more normative body type presented,” Udosenata said. “I think that artists are really excited to have diversity in the human form as a chance to practice skill.”

Making people feel safe in an intimate space

Codes of conduct for artists and models are established, and paperwork is signed before sessions begin.

Artists agree to specific behaviors to not make the models feel uncomfortable: no touching, no photos, no commenting on a model’s body, no asking personal questions, no asking someone on a date, a minimum of 5 feet of distance at all times. All communication with the model, including wanting to see a particular pose, must go through Udosenata as facilitator.

The release and consent form for the models says they have a right to decline poses that make them uncomfortable, and take breaks as needed. It also notes that artists own the drawings created during the session, but models are paid 70% of the door fees from each session. Models are welcome to bring any props, and to be clothed or draped to their comfort level.

Udosenata said maintaining a space where people can feel comfortable modeling, especially by creating distance between the artists and the model, is vital with figure drawing. 

“Limiting interaction between strangers and the naked body of a model is really important,” she said. “They’re not going to be approached, they’re not going to be put in a position where they have to answer any questions about what’s going on, or explain or defend their body in any way.”

At the figure-drawing session in August, Deidre Brown from Elmira was the second model to pose. Brown, who is 17 weeks pregnant with twins that she’s carrying as a surrogate, chose to model with a draped piece of fabric that she adjusted with different poses. She said she felt comfortable the moment she walked out and started posing.

“It was empowering and a bit vulnerable, but in a positive way,” Brown said. “Being in a room half-naked in front of strangers, it felt so relaxing and freeing, just embracing my own body and loving it and showing it.”

Even though Kirkpatrick has a background as a fat liberation activist and said they’ve come to peace with having their body on display, they weren’t sure if they were going to look at the art that people made in the session.

“I did happen to see the images that people made, and they blew my mind,” Kirkpatrick said. “They were gorgeous. I felt so seen with such respect and care in the way that I was portrayed.”