El artista y su modelo (the artista and his model) has an
interesting ring when it is la artista y su modelo (the woman artist and her
model).
For a few years when the 20th century was
becoming the 21st I worked with a pair of married Argentine artists
here in Vancouver. We worked in my studio, in their home and in a few odd
places with models, mostly female but with some men too.
The two, Nora Patrich and Juan Manuel Sánchez, sketched while
I took photographs. Every once in a while Sánchez would tell me to hold off
from changing the pose of the model. Often we went to a round-the-corner café, from my studio on Robson and Granville,
called Taft’s and we would discuss ideas with our models. Sánchez and Patrich
would sketch to show us. The process that we called "colaboración" opened in me an appetite for more which has been thwarted here in Vancouver. I have been unable to find like-minded people like the Argentine pair.
Working in a group was far easier than when I take
photographs of a model on my own. There is always that distance that must be
kept and I have to look straight ahead at the model’s eyes. The relationship of
an artist and model is one that has been studied and written about and
illustrated with photographs or paintings. There was even this wonderful French/Spanish
co-production.
In 2017 when Rosemary and I traveled to Buenos Aires I
connected with a lovely woman who posed for Nora Patrich and me at Nora’s
studio in Bellavista, a suburb of Buenos Aires.
When I took the photographs here (I have not used any, that
show bits, that might offend anybody.
While I have participated in many a session like this one, I
cannot get used to it and I experience an excitement and wonder. I am so lucky
not to be a plumber.
