When I model, I like to put as much of me as I can into the artist-model relationship – so I like to put talking and/or singing as part of the mix.
While this may not be appropriate in a studio situation, it can be
useful, with the instructor’s permission, in a classroom. I like to
use, especially, one or more of three short poems if I can find a way to
fit them. All three of these poems work especially well for models who
are opening themselves to artists, because all three are joyful
prayers.
First and shortest is a poem my grandfather, Joyce Kilmer it is called
“Easter”.
The air is like a butterfly
with pale, blue wings;
The happy earth looks at the sky,
and sings.
The second is a sonnet by Gerard Manley Hopkins.
God’s Grandeur
The world is charged with the grandeur of God
It will flame out, like shining from shook foil,
It gather’s to a greatness like the ooze of oil
Crushed. Why do men then now not wreck his rod?
Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;
And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;
And wears man’s smudge and shares man’s smell: The soil
Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.
And for all this, nature is never spent;
There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;
And though the last light off the black west went,
Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs –
Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.
Gerard Manley Hopkins, 1877
Other Hopkins poems are wonderful for this too.
Here are a couple of internet resources for Gerard Manley Hopkins.
http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/284
http://www.bartleby.com/122/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerard_Manley_Hopkins
personally, I think that the death of the model should not render the contract null. I believe that if a model does not want nude or semi- nude photos put forth for the public, then the artist/photographer should respect the wishes of the model. however, in the event of the death of the model, the family should be contacted if possible and an agreement about the use of said images should be in place before the pictures are used. any monetary or compensatory agreements should be honored. there have been too many posthumous “marilyn” and “anna nicole” photos over the years. I am an artist/photography model and I do not want anyone using my image ever in a method that was not explicitly stated in the contract, exception being a retrospect of the artist/photographer’s work. I do not allow photographs of myself to be taken without my permission. I own my image, it may not be copyrighted, but there are privacy laws and I will invoke them. so, if I use a release, I will make sure that both of us are agreeing on length of time, how the photos are used and where they are displayed, ie, gallery, book or internet. that is my two cents.
very nice, I wish more artists were as respectful as you. too often we are just still lifes with a heartbeat, mannequins that can position ourselves automatically.
thank you