How did I get into modeling?

For me it was quite easy and was a job that I had been doing since the age of 15 years old.  My dad, Mr E.S.M. Slomczynski; he  was self employed plummer and so I use to work for him.  I would attend meeting with him for the APHC The Coventry and Plummer Association.  This included an annual Diner and Dance in Blackpool.  I would go there every year with my family and meet and great everyone fro the Association; especially when my dad was elected to be President of the Association one year.

From there I attended trade shows manly at the NEC (National Exhibition Center) and exhibited at the Town and Country Festival when it use to run.

I would do promotional work and talk about how to make your home more energy efficient and advice people about the benefits of insulting a water filter to your sink.  I did promotional work for Opela "Get Fresh with Opela" was on the shirt I wore.

I loved it and wanted to go into to promotional work when I left school.

BUT the careers adviser was useless and this has not changed in the last ten years.  I explained clearly what I wanted to do and they could offer me no advise what so ever.

It is only by talking to people that I meet and going on line that I have been able to find out the information that I require.  In some ways I have found out the hard way and a little to late.

At the age of 15 I found out that I could not do promotional work until I was 18 years old.  It was the same with being a life model.

So I had 3 years of busting tables at a local restaurant, working 6 hours with no beak and on shop floors whilst retaking my GCSE's.

During that time I would listen to my aunt who use to be a life model and give me advise about working in the at world.

It is the one thing that we have always had in common.  From a young age and even today she calls me "Her Pre Raphaelite Angel."

So until I was 18 I did not model for anyone that would employ me and pay me; so I modeled for my friends, family and anyone that need a hand.

This was mainly college students who needed a model to help them to complete an assignment and usually fully clothed.

A recreation of Ophelia (painting) By Sir John Everett Millais, 

This was one of my first modeling shoots that I did.  It was for a Miss A.D.Brown.

During her Art Foundation course she wanted to recreate Ophelia in a modern day setting. So with the help of me and her sister we both posed for her so that her could take photos to work from.

Her sister posed in the bath fully clothed and I posed in the Coventry Canal wearing my wet suite and a floral dress. 

For the end result she used my body and her sisters face for the painting.  It was in a way very similar to how Sir John Everett Millais, she used both images and combinded then to make the painting.

The original muse for this breathtaking work of art was Elizabeth Siddal,  she was 19 years old when she worked for Sir John Everett Millais.  I was only about 17 years old at the time.

Millais had Siddal lie fully clothed in a full bathtub in his studio at 7 Gower Street in London. As it was now winter, he placed oil lamps under the tub to warm the water, but was so intent on his work that he allowed them to go out. As a result, Siddal caught a severe cold, and her father later sent Millais a letter demanding £50 for medical expenses. According to Millais' son, he eventually accepted a lower sum.

For me that was not the case.  I lay in the Coventry Canal and had about a 3 hour photo shoot, this held to mild Hypothermia and possible Weil's Disease I was sick for about 6 months after the photos were taken;  So I would not advise anyone to follow my foot steps and do what I did. 

http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/millais-ophelia-n01506

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/11018800/Ten-things-you-never-knew-about-Ophelia.html

 
Miss Katrina L Slomczynski playing Ophelia (1851-52) By John Everett Millais for Miss A.D.Brown in the Coventry Canal in 2000.

Above is the only image that i have from this shoot, if I can get a copy of the original finished piece of art work then I will up load it is due course.

Once I truned 18 I would like to say that my careea took off, but that was not the case and still today I am only a part time Life Model who is asked to do some pretty out there things from time to time.

For more information about being a life model, check out my links page, on line and my blog.  I will be posting more information this year.

Thank you.