Cartoon Strip: Nota Bene by Leonardo No. 37 - Skin Deep Part 3 of 3

This is the thirty-seventh installment of the Salem-News.com original series "Nota Bene by Leonardo" by Salem cartoonist Glen Bledsoe.

By Glen Bledsoe CLICK HERE to View Comic

(Earth-Tensor Fascia Latae) - Think about it. Light emits in all directions from a source be it the sun or a desk lamp. The light travels and encounters a human body. Some of the light is absorbed, the rest is reflected back. Which frequencies of light are absorbed will determine if the model appears tanned or baby pink. Some of the reflected light is caught by a human eye and the image is imperfectly transmitted to the brain. Besides being upside down there are other errors which the brain sorts out and creates a corrected image.

With a little education we can pick out the bones just below the skin, follow the striations of the muscle and curves of the fat pads. We learn, for example, the name of the material which flattens the outside of the thigh (tensor fascia latae)--or perhaps you've never noticed. We can, in short, appreciate that complex creature we call human beings in greater depth. That's what the student of life drawing does: understands and records that understanding with chalk and paper, paint and canvas. It seems like an abomination to display unclothed humans solely for purposes of erotic titillation when there is so much more to be appreciated. The beauty of the human body is more than skin deep.

Where does our protagonist, Dan Rubens, fall in this continuum of perception? Read on and discover the shocking truth.

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