Hattie

 

12/8/20 Hattie (15-min. pose)

The life-drawing sessions I’ve been attending in the Life Drawing + series are expanding my mind in many ways. Featuring models from the LGBT community, the moderators include time for discussion about their experiences. Hattie, this week’s model, is an artist and fashion model with an agency that employs transgender or otherwise gender-fluid individuals. Hattie, who identifies as gender-fluid, models both men’s and women’s clothing.

20-min. pose

In response to a moderator’s question, Hattie, who prefers the pronoun “they” instead of “she” or “he,” talked about feeling male sometimes, female at other times, and neither gender at other times, so the use of a plural pronoun accurately describes the plurality of their identity.

As much as a cis-gender (denoting a person whose sense of personal identity and gender corresponds with their birth sex) person can be, I try to be sensitive to the pronouns that individuals prefer to use. As a career editor, however, I have struggled with wrapping my head around using a plural pronoun and case for someone who I see as a singular individual. The interview with Hattie helped me to understand the issue from their point of view, and I appreciated the discussion.

2-min. poses

Another mind-opening aspect of the life-drawing session was the choice of music (made by the moderators) playing on the audio as we sketched. An eclectic mix including Billie Holiday, modern artists I’m not familiar with, and rap tunes filled with the F-bomb, the lyrics sometimes raised my eyebrow. I knew that if I didn’t want to listen to the music, I could simply turn off the audio, but I decided it was a good opportunity to be exposed to tunes that I might not otherwise choose myself.

Finally, the drawing practice itself was a bit of a brain-bender. Hattie chose some poses that caused the camera to distort their body extremely and sometimes even comically. All my usual markers for thinking about human proportions were gone. I went with it and had a ton of fun!

2- and 5-min. poses

5- and 10-min. poses

15- and 5-min. poses