The room fills with the sounds of rumpling sheets and the rustle of flannel pajamas. An incoherent mumble escapes your lips. Although you lie safe within the comfort of your bed, you toss and turn in despair, unable to distinguish fantasy from reality; one of those horrible dreams has come to haunt you again.

Standing in the center of a room, the sound of many pencils fervently scratching against paper echoes inside your head. You blink and squint your eyes in an attempt to distinguish a handful of dark shapes from the background. Suddenly, there is dramatic clarity. The room is full of people, their eyes are focused on you. To your left sits the guy you regularly see walking around campus. On the right, a girl you know from that introductory psychology course, and directly in front, the cute boy who has been checking you out at the bars the last few weekends. The cute boy is smiling now and you’re beginning to think this dream may not turn out to be so bad until you see why he’s smiling—you’re completely naked!

Your mouth opens to release a scream that never comes and your feet freeze to the floor. As you stand there, cold and horrified, a startling realization makes your nightmare significantly worse—the strangers are busily drawing pictures of your naked body.

For Kristan Taylor, this sort of experience isn’t surreal or a nightmare, but reality. Although the idea of standing completely naked in front of a room full of strangers would be rather uncomfortable for most, she has no qualms about posing nude in front of the strangers who comprise a drawing group.

“I’m proud of myself as a woman and proud of my body,” Taylor says. “I find it really empowering to be able to share myself with other people in a way that most people don’t understand.”

Taylor, 27, has been nude modeling for eight years since she moved to Bellingham in 1990 to pursue an elementary art and teaching degree.

With shortly-cropped, bleach-blonde hair, a multi-colored, striped long-sleeve shirt and black jeans, Taylor looks like any other average Bellingham resident. A particular look or figure is not what separates a nude model from the rest of society. Instead, it’s her strong self-worth and love of the arts that sets her apart.

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