cave, London, 10 March 2020

Originally Esther and I were booked to life model at cave for a Valentine’s Day event, but sadly this had to be postponed when group organiser Karen Turner was taken ill. We rearranged to one month later, by which time Karen was back at her irrepressible best but the rest of the world was on the cusp of a pandemic. London was still active, although not without some tentative trepidation for what might be brewing.

It was understandable that slightly fewer artists had opted to join us than on previous visits here. As with all Karen’s events however, anything less than joyfulness was out of the question. Karen pressed play on a Macy Gray CD then got us started with five poses of 1 minute each – a real test when two models are entangled! We lengthened to 5 minutes, 10 minutes and 10 minutes before breaking for cakes and wine.

When we resumed it was to the beats of ‘Native New Yorker Disco Classics‘. Not that we were dancing. Rather, we settled into a motionless half-hour, with Esther reclining and me curled by her side. A final embrace for 18-20 minutes completed our session. Artists had struggled with our plethora of limbs, but there was little we could do about that. Nobody really complained, though – tougher life challenges would lie ahead…