What does modeling and running have to do with each other? Honestly not a whole lot. There are times when I’m having to hold a pose for 30 or 45 minutes, and I take my mind to a meditative place. This meditation is similar to what I do on long runs when I’m needing to keep going, but there’s no one around to push me along. So there is a similarity there, but not exactly related.

As I stood perfectly still for a single artist in her Somerville studio today I thought mostly about running. The artist asked me to assume a very relaxed standing pose, and let my mind drift off somewhere else–to the mountains or something. This is a hard task–to think about something pleasant and relaxing without allowing yourself to smile.

But I practiced a bit and was able to think of my time running through the woods and fields of Pinelands.  This was the Pineland 50 miler that I did last May.  I remember how beautiful the scenery was, how rolling the terrain turned out to be, and how warm the sun felt on my skin! Certainly it was warmer than standing nude on a concrete floor in an old factory building. In that moment i thought of the run at midday heading through the grassy fields, I could swear I could feel the overhead sun’s warmth on my shoulders. Magnificent!

This was the second time I was modeling for this particular artist. The first time, a few days prior, I was in this same pose for 3 hours. She was drawing a straight on frontal drawing.  This is the side that most people focus on, not so much the back.  That got me to thinking what a persons back can say. Does it have the ability to express feeling, thought, determination?  I’ll have to think about that some.