September 5, 2024

Meet Mia St. Clair: Art Model and Artistic Entrepreneur

By Greer, Communications Intern

Mia St. Clair is a Pittsburgh-based fine art model and trailblazer. Mia combines her background in business and passion for the arts community to create inclusive spaces for figurative art models and artists, increasing opportunities and accessibility for the figurative art modeling community.

A photo of a blonde woman sitting with her knee to her chin and her hands around her legs — Mia St. Clair // Photo courtesy of Mia St. Clair

By prioritizing community and safety, Mia has gained traction within the Pittsburgh arts sector, establishing figurative art-focused events like Third Tuesday Life Drawing Sessions at Zynka Gallery, pop-up sessions at local art spaces, and the annual Living Canvas Figurative Art Exhibition at Studio 4. Through her work, Mia has challenged misconceptions about art modeling, creating judgment-free spaces for conversation and acceptance.

Mia’s energy is carried foremost by gentleness and charisma. Conversation with Mia falls into a vibrant cadence, representative of her mission in the arts community: to encourage energetic exchanges, cultivate creative freedom, and empower individuals of all identities.

As one of the many deserving recipients of the Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council’s Creative Entrepreneur Accelerator grant, Mia continues to use her creativity and passion to further her outreach and impact beyond the Pittsburgh area.

We asked Mia to talk about art modeling, her mission, and her future goals. (This interview has been condensed for space and clarity).

How would you describe your art and community work?

Well, as an art model, I serve as a muse for artists. The work I do is often misunderstood and sexualized because models are nude, and it's not about nudity or anything sexual. Art models are nude because it's a practice of drawing the human form, so the curves, angles, muscle structure, anything the artists need to be able to observe the anatomy. Since I started modeling, I have worked in and outside the figurative art community to challenge these misconceptions, and one of the things I've done is host meetups with models and organizers so that we could discuss professionalism, etiquette, and safety protocols. I also recently taught a two-day art model training workshop, and I produced an annual figurative art show. It's events like these that open the door to discussing figurative art. I love what I do, and even more so, I love working with the figurative art community.

What training does one need to become an art model? Do you give the models you work with instructions on how to pose, or do they have creative freedom?

That's a very good question because the 100% honest answer is: no, you don't need training. But like I said, it's always better if you do have training for a number of reasons; just like any job, you should have training and be professional about it.

"I think it's very important that art modeling should look like what the people of the world look like: different."

There really wasn't an opportunity like that in the Pittsburgh area for training. By talking with other artists and models and having a good relationship with all of them, including the organizers, I developed a two-day art training workshop. In that workshop, we covered everything from safety to etiquette, what the expectations are and poses and inspirations both on the models' end and the organizers' end. And then on my second day, I actually allowed the models to practice posing for area organizers in an open session. That allowed those organizers to meet and talk with the models and vice versa, and many of them were hired for future sessions. And then, of course, the organizers feel more confident in hiring these models because if you come in without training and you don't have a background in art studies, it could be very confusing as to what art modeling really is all about.

There's different tips and tricks of the trade, so we go through all of those things. As far as the instructions on how to pose and creative freedom, you usually have the creative freedom to pose however you like; however, sometimes, when you're doing long poses, or if you're doing a private commission, that artist will guide you into a pose that is suitable for their artwork. But something I really want to point out is models are never, ever asked to do anything that they aren't uncomfortable with. And when I say uncomfortable, I'm not coming to it through a sexual lens because, like I said, we don't do anything sexual, which includes our poses, just because we're nude. But anything that could be uncomfortable. So, no one's going to ask you to do a handstand for 10 minutes or two minutes even. We want to make sure that the model is comfortable. And that's part of the challenge of art modeling is you want to be able to present a challenging pose that is creative and exciting, but also that is not going to put you in any physical pain.

How would you describe the impact your work has on the arts community?

Well, definitely art models in general have a huge impact on the art community, and it's very rewarding. Without art models, the world wouldn't have some of its greatest works of art. So it's an honor and a privilege to be able to inspire different artists. I've had the opportunity to work with everyone from novice to professional artists for practice and for original pieces, and art modeling has opened up a lot of other opportunities within the figurative art community.

For me, personally, it's how I started producing the Living Canvas show, which is an annual figurative art show. And again, I host these model meetups and meet the session organizers; I host the life drawing session at Zynka Gallery. I maintain a roster of models to assist in scheduling, and I'm just always looking for ways to help the figurative arts community grow here in Pittsburgh.

I think there's a really big opportunity for Pittsburgh to be put on the map for figure modeling. For a city of our size, the amount of open sessions that we have in our area is really big when you compare it to other cities that don't have as many open sessions that we do. We do have a steady 30 different art models that work on a regular basis, and we have a lot of artists who are figurative artists. Even if their style is not figurative art, it's always good to practice life drawing, because if you could draw the human form, you're going to improve no matter what your style is. I think there's a big opportunity here in Pittsburgh to put figure drawing and figurative art on the map, and I'm just really happy that I could be a part of it and help that community to grow.

You’re both an art model and an artist yourself. How do you connect your modeling and art-making processes? Is there one that resonates with you more?

Art modeling was a big healing process for me. As I continue to heal on some things outside of the artwork, I realized that art was a great way for me to express myself, and so I started using art as a therapy tool to help me process some things and get through things. As I've continued to do that, I've really been interested in exploring more of the visual artist side of myself and tapping more into that. I'm going to be taking a drawing class soon. I love to attend other life drawing sessions because it helps me to sit on the other side of the easel. I love to learn from other models. I love to support them. And, you know, by watching other models too, I'm able to improve my own practice. I'm able to see what's interesting, what's not, what's working, what isn't. I'm always learning from watching other art models and just trying to draw myself. It's very frustrating for me because it's very hard, but I have a really, really good time trying, and I'm having fun with it, and I think that's really important.

A photo of an artist holding a sketch book with sketches of a woman who is front of them posing — Mia Modeling at a Life Drawing pop up at Studio 4 // Photo courtesy of Mia St. Clair

How can artists create a safe space for models?

I love this question because it's so important. Model safety is very, very important, and our local organizers take it very seriously. There are many protocols in place to ensure that the model is safe and respected. And I've never had a problem here in a local session, and that's due to the organizers, the moderators, and the artists themselves of doing an excellent job of ensuring the safety of the models. And I think that the Pittsburgh art community does a good job of being inclusive and really encouraging all people to give it a shot and to try out. That's what I love about the beauty of art modeling: it’s for anybody. Equally important is including all different body shapes and providing a safe and welcoming space for all bodies, all cultures, and all sexual and gender identities and ages, and that's a really beautiful thing.

Are there certain communities and identities you wish were more strongly represented in the Pittsburgh art and modeling scene?

I work with a number of models. When I first got into this, again, I have that business background, so my idea is like, well, I better do my research. So I surveyed the local figurative art community, I surveyed models, and, in doing so, it’s developed into a roster of the availability of local art models, and I work really hard to make sure that that list is all-inclusive. It doesn't matter your age, your body shape, your size, your color, your culture, your ethnicity, your gender identity, your sexual orientation. None of that matters. And I think it's very important that art modeling should look like what the people of the world look like: different. Everybody should be included, and so I work really hard to make sure that we have representation in the Pittsburgh art community.

Congratulations on receiving the Creative Entrepreneur Accelerator grant! How has that been able to help your practice? Where do you hope to see your projects blossom in the future?

The grant was absolutely critical in launching my Third Tuesday Life Drawing Session that I host at Zynka Gallery. Because of the grant, I've been able to purchase materials and supplies for the session, as well as covering a lot of the marketing costs. I've also launched online sessions, which are very different from in-person life drawing. There's a lot of challenges around live streaming nude content, and there's different safety measures to consider. I'm working with Silhouettes and Shadow, which is a platform based out of Chicago that hosts online figure drawing. We're working together to mitigate these risks.

In the future, I really hope to offer local models online session opportunities, but the safety and the legal issues have to be resolved before I'm able to move forward with hosting other models. I was also able to use the grant to help with the funding of the Living Canvas Figurative Art Exhibition, hosted annually at Studio 4. This was the second year for it, and we hit all of our goals. What's great about this grant is it hasn't just supported my own efforts, but also the dozens of artists who have attended the monthly Life Drawing session at Zynka and the 39 artists who submitted their work to the Living Canvas show. I'm just so grateful that I've been able to share that with the figurative arts community that has been so helpful to me, and really kind of give back to that community through this grant.

I really hope that the Third Tuesday Life Drawing Session continues to grow within the community. It's not just for figurative artists; all artists are definitely welcome to attend. And now having two successful Living Canvas shows under our belt, I hope that Studio 4 and I can continue to grow the show. I hope to get the attention of local organizations and businesses so that we can secure sponsorship for 2025 and beyond.

How can the Pittsburgh community continue to support your work?

First and foremost, artists should really attend our local life drawing sessions. It's critical in order for us to continue to host them. We just have a fantastic figurative art community here in Pittsburgh, and I just want all the artists to be able to experience that. For the Pittsburgh community as a whole, whether you're a first-time buyer or an avid collector, I would hope that they would consider purchasing a figurative art piece from a local artist. When they do, I hope they take a minute to think about the muse who inspired the artwork. For me personally, you could always follow me on my Instagram, where I list all the different sessions that I'll be working throughout the month and any pop ups that I have, including information about my annual art show, the Living Canvas. Also, I am always posting about any of the figurative artists in our community that are having shows, having different events. It's just a great art community to get involved with. I just hope that all the artists, and even non-artists, check it out!

To learn more about Mia St. Clair’s work, and upcoming opportunities, visit instagram.com/stclairmermaid.

Meet Mia St. Clair: Art Model and Artistic Entrepreneur

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