On Sunday morning, I felt seen.
It started a few weeks ago when I visited Lowe Mill for the first time in more than a decade and met David Nuttall. He paints plausible imaginary maps on naked bodies. “Are you into urbanism?” I asked him. He is. I knew I wanted to model for him, so I got his card and made my pitch. Fast forward a few weeks and I’m naked in his studio covered in squares and lines of paint.
David loves places, obviously. He loves maps. But he loves people even more. He loves stories. He loves understanding what makes people tick. When I talk, he listens. He turned our conversations about highways tearing apart Black business districts and neighborhoods into devastating art.
Working with David feels like an unexpected combination of therapy, Glamour Shots, and high art. It was intense to watch him take what’s inside me and represent it on me. The marker dragging across my skin reminded me of the tattoo needle, while the paintbrushes felt like tiny massages. Looking back, it’s strange how anti-objectifying the experience felt, especially for what it was. He turned my body itself into a lived-in, living canvas for conveying what’s meaningful to me through our map.
In addition to the time with David, who is a delight, and feeling seen in the process, I got a photograph that is one of my all-time favorites.
***CW: nudity***
If this experience sounds at all interesting to you, check him out.
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Posing naked for David Nuttall