“The model embodies what you’re after, it’s the organized whole. It gives you tension, action and reaction,” said Robert McCann, foundations coordinator for the MSU Department of Art and Art History.

Ed Morrison uses the opportunity to help support his nudist lifestyle. The economics doctoral student began modeling four years ago when he heard of the job through an article in the newspaper.

“Posing for classes is a nice way to get a taste of the art world without paying tuition,” he said.

The MSU Art Department foundation classes, or lower level drawing and art classes, must be taken by every art student before they move onto their focused majors. Nude models are prevalent in the art school and the Kresge Art Center uses models that are both clothed and nude, depending on what the professor calls for.

The professors make requests through the main office and from there the pool of models is notified via e-mail of the project availability, said Teresa Dunn, assistant professor of painting for the MSU Department of Art and Art History.

“It’s an unnatural situation. A nude model standing in a room full of people in front of easels,” Dunn said. “The human form is the most complex and difficult of forms to draw.”

The models are expected to stay completely motionless in seated or reclined positions during the sessions, which can be as long as 45 minutes to an hour before they get a break, according to McCann.

“I’ve had a leg fall asleep while I’m posing, and then I had to stumble around a bit to get the circulation back,” Morrison said.

Breaks normally last around five minutes before the models re-enter their pose.

Other models have found different ways of making themselves comfortable in the classroom.

Patty Sutherland, an East Lansing resident, began modeling when she was in grad school in the mid ’80s. She practices yoga and runs to stay healthy. She says all of the work helps her modeling.

“I stay fit, that helps immensely,” Sutherland said. “I can do a bunch of different things because of yoga, especially for gesture drawing.”

The mother of two started modeling at MSU in the fall of 2005.

Yet, being in shape is not a requirement to model.

“Models are encouraged to be of any gender, size, shape, ethnicity,” Dunn said. “In our department there is no preconceived idea of what or who our models should be.”

Models are paid $11 an hour for their work in what is usually a three hour class.

The only deciding factors are age, models must be 18, and a willingness to stand in front of a group of strangers completely still and possibly without any clothes.

History senior Kim Seaton, who started modeling in the fall of 2006, said that any nervousness she had melted away after her robe came off.

“The students aren’t really looking at you as a person but more as an object. It’s less intimate,” she said.

Seaton heard of the job opportunity on what was then SpartanTrak, now MySpartanCareer, and decided to give it a shot. The school also posts advertisements in local newspapers.

Models are allowed to mingle with the artists during breaks sometimes even scooping themselves in drawn form.

“It’s fun to see,” Sutherland said. “It’s so beautiful – the talent they have. Just sometimes I look at and say ‘Oh my God, it looks like my mother.’”

McCann says the living, breathing models place added pressure on the drawing students.

“There’s a kind of pressure that keeps everyone on task,” he said. “You don’t want to draw a stick figure.”

According to Dunn, students can even sell their work to the models.

“I love to see the students’ work,” Sutherland said. “I like to see them follow their passion.”