I have addressed this issue in part by using myself as the starting point of the model. This reference point shares a history with women surrealists who often used themselves as their models as well. Hence, the search for a muse becomes a search for the Gradiva inside and an assertion that I am not an abstract principle, nor are others who sit for me as models. To be nude is to be seen naked by others and yet not recognized for oneself. A naked body has to be seen as an object in order to become a nude.
Nakedness reveals itself.
Nudity is placed on display. To be naked is to be without disguise. To be on display is to have the surface of one s own skin, the hairs of one s body, turned into a disguise which, in that situation, can never be discarded. The nude is condemned to never being naked. Nudity is a form of dress.