Léonie Beaulieu has been working in the cultural sector for 5 years. She also has a side job: leading nude drawing sessions.
“I welcome people, I direct the models, I pose them and I make sure they are comfortable. I also give a helping hand to people who are less familiar with observational drawing. In short, I help people to draw naked people,” she explains.
The workshops she runs are given by Queer Bodies MTL, an organization that offers workshops with models with more diverse bodies.
“The live model is mainly done in a more academic context, with models who are used to holding poses for a long time, dancers for example,” explains Léonie. With Queer Bodies, the models are not necessarily professionals, they are all genders and body types.”
It was by participating in the Queer Bodies MTL workshops herself that she came to lead them.
“I published my drawings on social networks by tagging them and after a while, I was contacted because the organization had a grant and was looking for someone to lead the workshops.”
Passion, necessity or both?
It is not out of a need for money that Léonie runs her workshops.
“Now that I have a job As an adult, I do it much more for pleasure and because it’s an organization that I love,” she says.
The $100 fee she receives for a 2 or 3 hour workshop becomes what she callsfuck you money“. She uses this amount to treat herself from time to time or donates it to causes that are close to her heart, but which she does not calculate into her income when it is time to make a budget.
In the event that she makes enough money to live comfortably, she imagines continuing, even as a volunteer.
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