personalities
Out in the open
Nude modeling is a form of therapy for Chris McHale. After a childhood of abuse, she has become proud of her background her history and her sexuality.
Story by Stacy Morford Photos by Holly McQueen
Chris McHale's naked body crouched motionless amid the charcoal dust — her head up, musclestense, her short hair standing at attention. In the black coals of her eyes flickered the reflections of 15 artists, each hurriedly sketching her contours.
Three hours later and in her own
McHale does not try to hide who she is. She is upfront about her background, her history and her sexuality.
Three hours later and in her own home, the 39-year-old model relaxes. She is enveloped in the windy melody of a Native-American flute and surrounded by sketches and sculpture, each reflecting her Native-American heritage.
She considers herself a performance artist, and she draws from her Native-American culture and 20 years of modeling experience to enhance her art. Modeling for KU's art and life is another expression of that art as well as therapy for a life-long history of substance and sexual abuse
"The work I do, it's not a sexual kind of thing at all," McHale explained, as she eased into a wooden chair and sipped from a cup of herbal tea.
"Although certainly one's sexuality, one's sensuality, one's entire being is right there, the focus is always on the entire being," she said. "the students are focused on the drawing."
McHale does not see herself as a naked woman displayed before artists, but rather a system of muscles and bone to be studied and sketched.
She feels secure and at ease with herself when
she models, she said, but outsiders can shake that self-confidence.
When she modeled at Johnson County Community College two years ago, a junior slid into the room where she was posing three different poses. She then made body and exit the room only after commuting.
"Him making eye contact like that was very abusive — sexually abusive," McHale said. "I was furious. I felt violated and I immediately broke the pose."
Mhale said that she was physically and sexually abused throughout her childhood, and that those early experiences taught her to accept abuse as normal.
As a young adult, she became involved with a rough crowd and began taking drugs and drinking heavily. McHale has been in recovery for years, and said she is finally turning her life around.
"Now when I'm modeling I am very aware of how people treat me," she said. "The students are right there drawing. It's a very mutual relationship — very committed."
The model in the classroom actually leads the class, McHale said. Students must wait and watch and they depend on the model to remain unless for 30 seconds or as long as 30 minutes.
"Chris is the perfect example of a professional model of the very best kind," said Bob Brawley, drawing professor and head of the art and design department. "She takes physically athletic poses, and it painful to put out that kind of energy. She is a real force when she models."
McHale's poses are often the frozen steps of
Chris McHale of Lawrence models for drawing classes in KU's art and design department. Here she holds a Native-American flute, which reflects her heritage.
Jeff Ridgway, Drawing II graduate teaching assistant, uses vine charcoal and chalk for his drawing of model Chris McHale. McHale models for Ridgway's classes frequently.
"I've had situations where young men are playing Guns 'N' Roses and I'll take my staff, standing up there with the Anazon warrior look, and I point at the radio and say 'turn that violent stuff off,'" she said.
Native-American dances she learned as a child. She also adds variety to her form by leaning on a wooden staff to balance herself in contorted poses.
And what do students do when a nude woman,
standing in front of them and looking like Diana,
the moon goddess, points a staff at them? They
turn it off.
Kevin Beyers, Reading, Penn, senior, remembered the first time McHale attended his class. She was fully clothed, and she spent the entire three hours wandering among the artists and playing a wooden flute.
But she is wary of the flow of people in and out of the room when she models. She makes a point to acquaint herself with each student, and said she also wanted the students to get to know her.
McHale said she never encountered problems when she modeled for KU's art and design classes.
"She has really strong vibes," Beyers said. "It's almost silly how intense she is, but it’s energizing."
"I don't want to say she's masculine. But she's incredibly fit and if you look at her features, if you look at her face — it's her jaw, her check bones. She really looks male, but she's not."
MHule agree that her features, more than her poses, challenge the students and stretch
"I have a woman's body with a male spirit," McHale said. "I am very much a blend, very androgynous.
"I think the male students like me because I am androgynous enough that they can see their own structures in me, and when they draw me pictures, I just find them funny," she said. "They bring themselves into the drawing."
In Native-American culture, McHale would be considered two-spirited. Two-spirited people have dominant male and female qualities in one body. They are the mediators between the male and female energies and are respected for that role, she said.
"I am also a lesbian and I'm very out about it," Mhale said.
Six years ago she began to learn the traditions of her mother's Osage tribe through the teachings of tribal elders in the Lawrence area. The elders have taught her to respect differences in others and to learn from others by listening and watching in silence.
McHale said watching and learning from the students and teachers in the Life Drawing classes was the best compensation she got from modeling, far outweighing the $7 an hour she earns.
She said she improved her own skills by watching the students draw and listening to the teacher.
"I hear the best instructors and I hear them teaching their students the things that I need to learn as an artist," McHale said. "I see 20 to 30 hours curriculined and taught over a three-hour period."
The instructors help students get past what is traditionally accented as beautiful, she said.
"I grow from that — my dancing grows from that, my spirituality grows from that in a non-intellectual sort of wav," she said.
McHale never attended a college art class before she began to model at KU. Now, she wants to take classes in creating functional art, particularly Native-American drums, flutes.
"Just like when I dance the traditional dances, or when I play the flute — when I model I am a performing artist," McKleave said. "As a performer I always want to do what I do — the way I live my life is all part of my art."
OCTOBER 27,1992 PAGE 7 KU CAMPUS
People and places at the University of Kansas.
calendar
Exhibitions
Spencer Museum of Art 864-4710
Hours: Closed Monday; 8 a.m. - 5 p.m. Tuesday-
Saturday; noon - 5 p.m. Sunday.
"A Noble Collection: Old Master Prints from the Spencer Albums" through January 3.
"Hitage of the Brush: The Roy and Marilyn Papp Collection" through December 27.
"El Dia de los Muertos: Celebrating Mexico's Day of the Dead" Thursday through November 11.
KU Museum of Natural History 864-4540
Hours: 8 a.m. - 5 p.m. Monday - Saturday; 1
p.m. - 5 p.m. Sunday.
KU Museum of Anthropology
Hours: 9 a.m. - 5 p.m. Monday - Saturday; 1-5 p.m. Sunday.
Continued on Page 8.