Ilsley Arrives in Nevada This week, Ilsley arrived in Jean, Nevada, at Nevada Sun Rancho. The rustic camp is located 50 miles south of Las Vegas on 10 acres of desert next to the Bureau of Land Management land. With 365 days of sunshine, the club is open year-round with monthly theme parties and fun for the whole family. Highlights of the year include Mardi Gras, Cinco de Mayo, Nude Recreation Week events, luau, and New Year's Eve functions. Club members believe in the essential wholesomeness of all human bodies. They also believe in the naturalness of social nudism and consider the exposure of the entire human body to sunlight and air beneficial. Nevada Sun Rancho features a small and intimate clubhouse with a large screen TV. The solar heated pool with a sunning area is just the place to relax, unwind, and make new friends. The Ilsley is a traveling trophy commissioned to commemorate AANR's 75th Anniversary as the credible voice of reason for nude recreation in North America. Ilsley is traveling to nearly 40 AANR clubs and resorts across the U.S. and Canada. Throughout his tour, special themed events and celebrations are planned at host clubs along the way. The award is named for the late Rev. Ilsley Boone, the founder and first Executive Director of AANR's predecessor, the American Sunbathing Association. Boone is perhaps best remembered as the flamboyant clergyman who served as plaintiff in the 1958 case of Sunshine and Health v. Summerfield. That case went all the way to the United States Supreme Court and established, once and for all, First Amendment protection for nudist publications. Ilsley ends his tour in August 2006 at the Association's 75th Anniversary Convention at Deanza Springs Resort outside San Diego, California. You can track Ilsley's weekly progress on his year-long tour right here on the AANR website. 
Art on Trial in Jakarta An obscenity and blasphemy case has been filed in Jakarta against six people for putting up a pictorial exhibit of Adam and Eve in which the actors in the photographs are covered only by fig leaves covering their private parts. Police named three artists, a photographer, a prominent art curator, and a sixth person as suspects in the case. The exhibit at the Bank Indonesia Museum in Central Jakarta raised a furor with Islamic hardliners who said the photographs were an insult to Islam. The group, the Islamic Defenders Front, was at the forefront of the criticism of the group. Leaders claimed the artwork violated criminal laws against insulting a religion in Indonesia and publicly displaying pornography. The offense is punishable by up to 5 years and 18 months in prison. The actor in the photograph who portrayed Adam defended himself by saying that he was not completely nude during the photo shoot. He also apologized to anyone whom the photograph might have offended and explained he was only trying to make art. Read more at Blasphemy Case. Just in Time for Spring Cleaning Method products wants you to "peel off those rubber gloves. Unbutton your shirt. . .It's all in the name of good clean fun." Method cleaning products can be found in stores or on their website at Method.com. Who said housework couldn't be fun too? Nude Model an Inspiration At an age when many women are embracing coverups and bathing suits with skirts attached, 55-year-old Maura LeBron answered an ad for a nude model at the local community college. Maura says she and her husband are "kind of like nudists, but just at home. It never occurred to me to go out in public." Then one day her husband spotted an ad in a nudist magazine. LeBron, also an artist, answered the ad and began her modeling career. Coastline Community College instructor Lynn Goodin says the nude figure "nourishes the creativity of any visual artist." As soon as you put clothes on a figure, "you have made a statement about personality." Elizabeth Knox, a painter who runs a workshop at the Grand Central Art Center in Santa Ana, put herself through the Parsons School of Design in New York City as a young student by posing. For Knox, painting a nude is "about the psychology of the person and getting to their soul." LeBron has been sketched, painted, and sculpted naked hundreds of times. She is proud that breast cancer didn't stop her. Several weeks after surgery, she arrived for a class, bloated and bandaged. The instructor, knowing what she was going through, created a stage that looked like a French boudoir with lace and flowers and everything pink. LeBron says she broke down and cried. Then, sitting naked on a chair, she continued to cry while they painted her. She has pictures of it. Read more at Nude Model.  |
