The naked truth

Artist Hallie Jay Pope's sketch of Chris, a nude model. Hallie Jay Pope

Chris' body had always been a source of shame and disappointment. But deep down, he had the burning desire to bare all — to be seen.

One of the most important relationships in our lives is the one we have with our bodies.

For Chris, that relationship has been a long journey that started with a step — or an episode of the TV sitcom “Step By Step,” to be exact.

The episode, titled “What’s Wrong With This Picture?” aired in 1996, when Chris was 10 years old. One of the characters, Dana, agrees to pose nude for an abstract painting, with the understanding that it won’t actually show her naked. It would just be abstract lines and shapes. But the artist has a change of heart, and the painting is revealed in front of Dana’s whole family. She was, understandably, embarrassed. But Chris was inspired.

At that point, he didn’t know nude modeling was even a thing.

He had been the target of frequent bullying in school, and he’d started to hate his body. So the idea of letting people stare at it, this thing that was the source of so much misery and shame for him … it was inconceivable.

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But then he would daydream. Imagine if he could be that free?

Nude modeling was calling Chris. But it would take a long time to finally answer it.

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Lead image by Hallie Jay Pope.