PORT TOWNSEND — “Queering the Body,” a figure drawing class series for queer, gender non-conforming and trans folk, will start April 10 at Northwind Art, the nonprofit art school at Fort Worden State Park.
“This is a class where we celebrate bodies of all sizes, genders, races, sexual orientation and disability,” Northwind spokesperson Diane Urbani said.
“We’ll not only learn the art of figure drawing, we’ll also explore movement, texture, light and shadow,” she added.
O’Keeffe invites participants to “choose your own adventure” in sessions from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. April 10, May 29 and June 26.
“Come to one or come to all,” O’Keeffe said.
Advance signup is necessary at https://northwindart.org via the Take a Class page.
Figure drawing is a practice historically rooted in the celebration of whiteness and “conventionally attractive” bodies, O’Keeffe said.
“Queering the Body,” she said, seeks to discard that harmful convention. In this series, participants can give their “undivided attention to the practice of finding the immense beauty, magic and value in bodies of all kinds.”
Classes will have live models, nude or partially clothed, depending on the models’ preferences. The April 10 session will focus on the basics of capturing the human form through a series of quick and longer poses.
On May 29, the class will explore how to draw light, shadow and texture; the last class on June 26 will have two models and focus on foreshortening — how to capture elements of the body that are seemingly moving away from you or toward you in space.
O’Keeffe has been practicing and loving figure drawing since she took her first class at age 14. They went on to take many more figure drawing classes, including anatomical drawing to learn structure and musculature.
Makenna O’Keeffe, the subject of this self-portrait, will teach a figure drawing series titled “Queering the Body” at Northwind Art School in Port Townsend. (Makenna O’Keeffe)
