Huffington Magazine Issue 21 | Page 93

Exit will never respond to an ad if someone uses ‘female’ as a noun, but if it’s an adjective, that’s okay.” Claudia looks like a runway model and acts like an artist: thoughtful and assured. Her towering, spindly frame is hidden underneath a button-up shirt and blazer, her short, rain-spritzed hair tucked behind her ears. The pouring rain nearly drowned out Claudia’s hushed voice as she sipped a black coffee in a Manhattan bookstore. The Montreal-born model began posing nude for artists at 19. She had experience in fashion modeling and dreams of being a curator, so the unconventional teenage decision to be an art model made a surprising amount of sense. “I don’t really remember my first session,” she says. “I don’t think I was nude for that one; I was wearing a kimono. I still wear a kimono mostly, but of course now I take it off.” For the past 10 years Claudia has been modeling on-and-off, charging between $20 an hour and $500 a day, depending on the gig. (The flexible hours and control allow her to curate on the side, often incorporating the a