Jason Fink made this clip of me answering the virginity question from episode 6 of Strip Search.

“Virginity” is an out-dated, sexist, heterocentric concept that exists to determine a (cisgender) woman’s value and worth. Being sexually active is about physical intimacy in ALL of its forms, PENIS IN VAGINA is not the be-all, end-all of sex acts. 

You’ve got SO MANY virginities and you can share them with SO MANY different people in different ways (If that appeals to you, if you don’t feel that urge that’s totally cool and natural too!)

Sex Educator Extraordinaire, Laci Green, has made some great, short videos talking about the concept of virginity that you should totally check out! WHAT COUNTS AS SEX?, You can’t POP Your Cherry! (Hymen 101), Losing Your Virginity?! and 23 YEAR OLD VIRGIN?…

Matthew and me working away in our home studio on a Sunday, making progress on commissions and freelance stuff.

(Photo by Sara Kaltwasser, taken today!)
Today was my first day of teaching comics at PNCA with my friend and studiomate, Terri Nelson! This is our third year in a row teaching this class and I freakin’ love it. We even had a couple repeat students this year, which is so awesome to see them grow artistically and, uh, age-edly.

Really looking forwad to the rest of the week!

Hahaha, my photo of a kitty made of Jello is featured on Cooking.com! And yes, yes it was just as delicious to eat as it was fun to jiggle.

I also took a video, too:

If you are not sure what this is about, here is more information on this matter.

But basically: the library has a messed up funding system and it is at risk of losing a significant chunk of it, causing many librarians to lose their jobs and reduce the hours of operation for the libraries.

Vote YES on 26-125 to help keep the libraries open and librarians from being laid off.

Drop off your ballot at Multnomah County Library
Drop-off deadline: Tuesday, May 15, 8 p.m.

All Multnomah County libraries will serve as ballot drop-off sites during regular library hours, from April 27 through Election Day, May 15.

Loooooovin’ my merlot-colored Crochet Lover stockings from Sock Dreams. They were a little reward to myself for reaching some goals. PLUS I got them on sale! Which is like a DOUBLE reward! And Sock Dreams doesn’t charge shipping in the US, so, y’know, TRIPLE REWARD.

Rewards all up in my business.

Dress: Hand me down Old Navy from my awesome neighbor, Tracy.
Boots: Diba, Frizz Bee Gray, a Christmas gift from Matthew.

Oh my gooooooooosh, look what Matt and I have just acquired!

It’s an original fabric collage by Jenna Robertson, of Woolie Originals fame! (That’s her, dropping it off at our house) She makes the most beautiful, inviting collages out of scraps of fabric and clothes that she sews together and mounts on wooden frames, in addition to her own custom-designed apparel, accessories, and toys.

Last year Matthew and I saw some of her amazing collage-work featured in our favorite coffee shop, Albina Press, and we couldn’t stop admiring her pieces (pictured above!). Though we both agreed one of her squid pieces would go perfectly on the oppressively white, barren wall next to our bed, we managed to talk ourselves out of buying anything for the entire month her show was up.

A year later we were still bringing up how nice one of her pieces would look in the bedroom, and it isn’t a shame that we didn’t get one after all. In my mind, if a year goes by and you are still actively pining for something, then it’s time to nut up and pay for it.

The original pieces from the coffee shop had already sold long ago, but when I contacted her she was available to custom make us a collage fit to our request! My only desire was for the squid to take up as much space as possible. I didn’t want no shrimpy squids, oh no, I wanted a motherfuckin’ MEGA SQUID.

Man, how freakin’ perfect is this?

See what I mean about that soul-sucking blank wall next to our bed? SO DEPRESSING. –Until the collage! Yay! I can see clearly now, the rain is gone!

Ah yes, our bedroom is so much more improved now. I’m so incredibly happy with our purchase and full-heartedly recommend commissioning or buying any of Jenna Robertson‘s creations.

Okay, so 2011 I started a personal undertaking that went through several titles but I’ve now settled on calling Project: Woman Project. (Or really, I just say Project Woman Project without the colon, but I threw it in there to be grammatically correct this one time. But from here on out, I’m writin’ it the way I say it.)

The gist of this project was to teach myself how to wear clothes other than jeans and t-shirts. It started out super intimidating, because fashion is not really something I have an eye for at all, but eventually I started to pick up a few clues about how to put together a passable outfit for myself. I’m still… figuring it out, mind you. Trial and error. But the ones that work, I use over and over and over, trying to build upon their accidental success. Er, moving on.

One of my favorite discoveries was OH MY GOD TIGHTS. Luuuuuuuuuv ‘eeeeeeeeeeem. Really that should be “RE-discoveries”, because I used to wear them all the time in high school. They are my cheat sheet to fancifying pretty much every outfit now. So I was delighted to find out Sock Dreams was having a New Year’s Eve 20% off sale just in the nick of time!

The first three are all Solid Opaque Thigh Highs, colors: Royal Blue, Burgundy, and Fuschia. Fourth set over on the far right is the Crochet Lover Over The Knees (Displayed over some solid red tights that I bought second hand last year.)

Close up of Crochet Lover, on top of red tights.

The arrived in record time, the shipping was FREE (WUT, WHAT COMPANY DOES THAT?), aaaaaand I got a great little handwritten note from Sock Dreams Star Employee Brenna which totally made my day. Customer Satisfaction: MAXIMUM ACHIEVEMENT.

There’s no real point to this post other than the fact that I wanted to show you guys my new tights that just arrived yesterday.
(Sock Dreams logo designed by Echo Chernik, I discovered just a couple minutes ago as I did an Google Image Search for their logo)

(This is part of my series of recaps about traveling to England and France this year from October 25 – November 8th)

The best part about visiting England is spending time with my wonderful in-laws. Matt has the most loving, accepting, multi-national family anybody could ever hope to have– they made me feel like a member of the clan well before we even started talking about marriage. I love them like my own flesh and blood and feel just as loved and embraced by them in return.

If you’ve visited Matt’s website, you’ve noticed his domain name is InternationalHobo.com– a name he chose on account of the eclectic mix of nationalities his family is composed from.

His grandmother immigrated to France from Wales as a late teenager, where she had Matt’s mother and continues to live to this day. His mother, in turn, immigrated to England from France while in her early twenties, and though she has lived in the UK longer now than she lived in her mother country she still has a lovely, strong French accent mixed in with her British one. Though Matt cannot speak it, he understands French nearly fluently on account of growing up in a household where his mom and her second, French, husband spoke the language to each other every day. Matt’s father immigrated to England from Australia, where he met and married Matt’s mother, which is, in turn, why Matt’s accent slips into an Australian twang at times (along with the American he’s picked up from me).

Coming from a family with such trans-continental itchy feet, it’s only fitting he then immigrated to the USA to marry me! He is my International Hobo.

Lookit Matthew at 18, just a year before we met. Can you blame me for cradle-robbing him as a two-years-older woman? NO, I think NOT.

The heart of his mother’s house is definitely the kitchen, where all spend most of our time together.

Matt is the cook of our little two-person family here in the states, a skill he learned from his own mom. I never ate so well in my life until Matt came along with his French cooking.

As an entire group, both sides of Matt’s family got together to go on an epic two hour (each way) bike ride along the English countryside.



Then we stopped at pub and had an enormous lunch followed by this dessert, that I forget the name of.

And then on a completely different day, Matt and I went to a fish’n'chips shop with his mom and she took this photo of us. It is the old guy in the background that really ties this shot together, I think.

Back in the day before becoming a self-employed full time artist, I used to supplement my day job’s income by being a life model. For several years I posed for artists once to a couple times a week all over Portland. For any of you aspiring life models, here’s some of my knowledge I acquired during that time. (This entry was originally posted on my now-abandoned LiveJournal a few years ago)

Drawings of Erika by Lee Moyer.

How Do You Find Places to Model?
Cold call!
Look up the schools and studios in your area and just give them a call. Ask if they need a model and give them a brief description of yourself (age, sex, height, weight, body type)

Do I Need a Resume?
I’ve heard of some places that like to get a picture + your measurements, but I’ve never run into it myself. So, no, no resume needed. Unless a place asks for one, I guess!

How Much Is a Model Paid?
Peanuts.
Schools (in Portland, OR) pay $40 for three hours.
Private studios pay $40 for three hours plus tips, so you can make anywhere between $41 – 80, depending on how generous (or not) people are.

How Do I Prepare to Model For the First Time?
Attend a life drawing class as an artist first. Life modeling can be painful, but drawing a bad model is BRUTAL. Find out what kind of poses you enjoy drawing, what behavior/poses you don’t appreciate, and then incorporate that knowledge into your modeling sessions.

Practice with some friends!

Do I Need Prior Experience?
Practicing with friends does count ;) But no, I’ve drawn plenty of models that were doing it for the first time. You prolly won’t be faaaabulous the first time, but just take the plunge anyway.

What Typically Happens at a Life Modeling Session?
Generally classes are three hours long and break down like this:
15-20 one minute poses (also called ‘Gestures’ or ‘Warm Ups’)
5 five minute poses
2-3 ten minute poses
2-3 fifteen minute poses
1-3 thirty minute poses

Sometimes a class is one long pose, sometimes it’s three hours of one minute poses, but generally you can expect a combination of the above. Expect a 5-10-15 minute break between sets.

How Do I Make Up Poses?
Life modeling is not like photography modeling, it’s not about Being Pretty. You need to create engaging poses with your whole body that you can hold for 1, 5, 15, 30, 45 and 60 minutes. Practice at home, see how long your body is comfortable holding different kinds of poses.

Keep it interesting by rotating through modeling low (reclining, crouching), medium (bent over, not at full height) and high (standing).

Think about the negative space around your body and the shapes you’re creating in it.

For the love of God, TWIST. Even if you’re just turning your head, a pose becomes 600% more interesting when the focus of your figure is not all pointing in the same direction. Hm, I’ll have to make some diagrams to illustrate this. For now: Hip Jut! Asymmetry! TwistTwistTwist!

How Do I Hold Still That Long?
It DOES get painful. Personally, I can go up to 15 minutes before it starts to hurt and then after that it’s just gritting my teeth through it.

Use this time to be calm, to sort through your thoughts, mentally write your grocery list or plan out the stuff you have to take care of once you’re out of class. I compose comic scripts during long poses.

Also, counting!

Oil Painting of Erika by Dawn

It’s incredibly easy to forget how long you’ve been in a long pose, so you can try to keep track by counting out the seconds and minutes. …Okay, that sounds a little OCD, but honestly, it does make the time go faster. I keep track of the seconds by counting “one (one thousand), two (one thousand), three (one thousand) …”
Once you’re into the first minute, keep track by saying the minute first and then the second; One one (one thousand), one two (one thousand), one three (one thousand)…

I find that helps keep me from getting too squirmy when I’m wondering how long till can I finally change this pose.

What Do I Do With My Face?
Personally, I just let mine be neutral. Trying to keep a specific expression gets reeeeeally painful and awkward super fast. But if you can do it, more power to ya!

What Do I Do if My Limbs Fall Asleep?
I don’t know if this actually works or if it just kinda keeps my mind from focusing on the pain too much, but flex your muscles during the pose. Otherwise, just suck it up, bitch. Your limbs will fall asleep. If a pose gets unbearably painful, speak up and tell the class something like “Hey guys, I’ve got a cramp that I need to shake out for a sec.” and then try to keep the majority of your body still in the pose while you deal with your sleeping limbs.

When you’re resuming the pose, ask the class to correct you if any of your fingers or whatever are out of their original place.

What if I Get Aroused?
I… don’t know? I’ve heard of models not being asked back if they pop a boner. But to avoid the boner-popping in the first place… jeez. I dunno. Think of the Queen?

Charcoal Drawing of Erika by Steve Lieber

I’d Like to Model, But I’m Not in Good Enough Shape
Artists need models of ALL SHAPES AND SIZES AND ELASTICITIES AND HAIR CUTS AND BODY TYPES AND AGES. The whole point of life drawing is to get first hand experience drawing the human body– NOT The Idealized Perfect Body of a God on Earth. The HUMAN Body. Artists actually enjoy and look forward to drawing Not-Perfect-20something-Year-Old-Athletes.
So for fucks sake, DO IT.

Is It a Problem to Have Tattoos?
Nope! They may not get drawn, but they’re certainly not going to turn you away because of piercings and tattoos.

How Do I Cancel A Session?
CALL IN ADVANCE. Give at least a week’s notice, more if you can swing it. Just make sure you let them know as SOON as you know you won’t be able to do it. Life models are infamous for being completely flakey. Don’t be the Flakey Model! Don’t fuck over a whole class of people, it really sucks.

Let the instructors know that you’re available to fill in last minute for any models that do flake out, that will make you popular pretty quick.

Oh Shit! I’m Stuck in Traffic!
CALL THEM and let them know how soon you’ll be there. I write down the studio’s number in my appointment book for just such emergencies.

An Artist is Making Me Uncomfortable
Tell the instructor/leaders of the session, they should have words with that person. If you’re brave, tell the culprit off yourself! This advice does not work when it is the instructor whose being a douche. Follow your gut instinct and do not stay in an unsafe situation.

Aaaand, for you drawers of models, I’ve got some advice for you too!

–For a single session:
$1 is good, but no less than that.

$2 if the model was exceptionally awesome.

You can go higher, but only if you’re harboring a secret love.

–For a multiple-sitting session:
For these, you only need to tip once, on the final session.
Tip at LEAST $1 per session that the model sat for. Three sessions = AT LEAST $3, six sessions = AT LEAST $6

But really, you should tip a dollar or two higher than that, since long poses fuckin’ HURT. Even if the model starts with the most comfortable pose possible, their joints will be SCREAMING by the end.

Can I Take Photos?
Only AFTER you’ve received consent from the model. Then, pay them.

I Think the Model is Into Me, Should I Go For it?
NO.

Please, please no.

Don’t be that douchebag.

If you bump into each other OUT of class (And not, like, five minutes after class is out and you’re waiting in the hall. I mean a week later at the grocery store), then that might be okay. Maybe. Possibly. But probably not.