Shawna in the Jungle

 

5/25/24 Shawna, 3-min. poses

During the worst part of the pandemic when isolation and restlessness were the new normal, and the vaccine was still months away, one of many things I was grateful for was livestream life drawing. In particular, Shawna Holman, one of my favorite Gage models, went freelance when all her live modeling gigs necessarily vanished. Using an improv acting format, Shawna would choose a narrative theme and create dynamic, ultra-short poses of 30 seconds to seven minutes. One of the most memorable was when she enacted scenes from “Die Hard” while wearing a bikini (have you ever visualized Bruce Willis in a bikini?).

1-min. poses

When it became safe to go back to the life-drawing studio, Shawna resumed her improv format at the Artists & Craftsman store in the U-District. Although I’ve known about the series for a long time, I hadn’t gotten around to trying it live until last Saturday. Shawna’s narrative theme for the morning was a jungle explorer engaged with exotic plants, birds and saving them from an unexpected drought.

2-min. poses

Keeping up with her poses (I sketched 43 in two hours!) gave us all a breathtaking challenge while her narrative kept us entertained.

3-min. pose