“What’s it like to be a nude art model?” the Chicago Tribune asked Ohio University alum Jonathan Miller ’10.
Miller earned a B.A. in Political Science from the College of Arts & Sciences at Ohio University.
Consider the naked man, standing on a small platform in Bottle & Bottega, a cozy and handsome BYOB painting studio in Chicago’s Lakeview neighborhood. It is 7 p.m. on a Friday and there are 42 sets of eyes fixed on the naked man, the eyes of women who have gathered and will over the next couple of hours, with the aid of three attentive artists-instructors, make a painting of the naked man using canvases on easels in front of them, and paints and brushes lying nearby.
The quality of these paintings when finished will vary widely but the naked man says, “I have been really surprised by how well some of them do.”
His name is Jonathan Miller, and, a few minutes before he took off his clothes and began to pose, he was saying: “The first time I did this, I will admit, was nerve-wracking. But now, after doing it 15, 20 times, it’s a lot easier. I am just being part of a fun evening in a creative and light-hearted place.”
He is a pleasant and articulate young man — he turns 27 in a couple of weeks — who grew up in a Cleveland suburb, graduated with a degree in political science from Ohio University, moved here a few years ago (and lives in the Lincoln Park neighborhood), is a second lieutenant serving an eight-year hitch in the Army National Guard and is close to completing a master’s degree in urban planning at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
He makes $30 for every hour of posing, and this is how his modeling career started: “I was here on a date a couple of years ago and was painting and talking to one of the instructors who was telling me about the ladies’ nights. I had had a couple of glasses of wine and said I might like to try that. I was just back from basic training and was in ridiculously good shape, so I came in later for an interview and that was that.”
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