 "Photo: Karl Anderson")
David Stanz gets paid to take off his clothes.
Stanz is one of six models hired by Texas Tech's School of Art, which employs models to pose nude for its upper-level drawing classes and clothed for its lower-level classes.
Stanz, a 45-year-old Lubbock resident, said he began modeling for the art school in 2003 because he heard about it from a friend and thought it would be an interesting job experience.
Melissa Perez, a junior studio art major from San Antonio, said she found it awkward at first to draw a nude model because it was unfamiliar territory.
"After about a week, you don't care," she said. "You don't see it as naked; it's more nude."
Stanz also works as a student assistant at the Rawls College of Business and several other jobs around town.
"I can't put all my eggs in one basket," he said. "I'm just not very good at doing that."
Stanz earned a bachelor's degree in consumer economics and environmental design in 1989 from Tech and is currently working toward a bachelor's degree in community family and addiction services at the university.
Earning his second degree is part of his goal to continuing learning throughout his lifetime, he said, and modeling for the art school is a way for him to contribute to other students' education at the same time.
"It's nice to be able to assist and aid in the education of young people," Stanz said.
Tech art professor David Lindsay said nude models are the best way for students to learn to draw human figures.
"Drawing from a model is probably the oldest activity that the art department engages in," Lindsay said.
Stanz said the first time he modeled nude was an interesting experience, but he wasn't embarrassed. In the past he spent some time practicing stand-up comedy in several local bars and overcoming stage fright made it easier to overcome any anxiety about modeling nude.
"If you can get on stage and do what I do," Stanz said, "taking your clothes off is nothing."
When he told his friends about his job, he said, they laughed and asked if students laugh at his body.
Fortunately they don't, he said, because the students are taught to be professional.
"They need all types of body types," Stanz said. "They can't only draw someone who is muscular."
However, modeling nude has encouraged him to work out and get in better shape. He said he has lost several pounds since taking the job.
Lindsay said it is important to know how to draw a nude figure, because it makes it easier for students to understand how to draw fabric folds over a clothed figure.
"Some of the most conservative art is figurative," he said, "and to do a good job, you have to know what the figure looks like."
The advanced figure-drawing classes use nude models on most days, he said, and models are required to hold poses from anywhere between 20 seconds to more than three hours.
Lindsay said the idea of drawing a naked model can be intimidating to students, but they do not hesitate for long.
"Most of the students are very quickly not bothered," he said, "because they're focusing on drawing."
Destiny Strong, a senior studio art major from Lubbock, agreed and said it's also important for the professor to set a serious tone.
"Once you start drawing," Strong said, "you forget there's a naked person."
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