Trio behind the arts


		Paul Joseph Brown / P-I
	Nicholas Ohlweiler, 10, captured three mostly nude bicyclists on canvas yesterday at the Fremont Fresh Air Festival. Loincloth-clad nude-beach activists Daniel Johnson, left, Russ Riddell and Mark Storey pose for the beginning of the fictional Tour de Fremont at the fund-raiser for the Fremont Rotary Club.

But for the three mostly naked men posing at the Fremont Fresh Art Festival yesterday, the main discomfort came from the loincloths they were required to wear.

"Trust me. We feel like dorks," said one of the men, Daniel Johnson.

"It actually looks sillier having these things on," agreed Russ Riddell, nodding at his skimpy, strategically placed hot-pink cloth.

Johnson, Riddell and fellow art model Mark Storey are part of a new activist group called the Body Freedom Collaborative that promotes clothing-optional beaches largely by showing up naked in Seattle parks and other public places. Group members recently did nude photo shoots at Gas Works Park and the Arboretum to draw attention to their nude-beach agenda.

These guys believe Seattle is ready to dispense with loincloths.

But is it?

Even in free-minded Fremont, festival organizers thought full nudity might be too controversial.

So they insisted on minimal coverings for the Body Freedom models, who posed on bikes to represent the famous nude bicyclists who show up each year at the Fremont Solstice Parade.

"We wanted to take a more conservative role and just not cause any stir," said Shannon Askay, who organized yesterday's festival as a fund-raiser for the Fremont Rotary Club.

And while Body Freedom activists cite polls showing strong public support for clothing-optional beaches, Seattle's public officials aren't so sure.

"This isn't Europe. People's mindsets are different," said Councilwoman Jan Drago, vice chairwoman of the council's Parks, Education and Libraries Committee.

While Drago said she personally thinks nude beaches are harmless, she added, "I can't imagine that Green Lake, that our public beaches, would go in that direction."

State House Speaker Frank Chopp, a Democrat who represents the Fremont-Wallingford area, said the issue hasn't come up in his eight years in office. Chances of the Legislature agreeing to a nude beach in a state park are "very slim," he said.

Washington's indecent exposure law makes it a misdemeanor to "make any open and obscene exposure" of the body knowing that it's "likely to cause reasonable affront or alarm." Yesterday's artistic display attracted no police attention but drew smiles and photo snapping by passers-by.

Askay, the festival organizer, said it was her idea to include nude bicyclists as one of the "scenes" for artists to paint. "It's representative of Fremont, and we wanted to incorporate that," she said.

The festival, held at the Adobe Plaza, allowed people to watch artists in action and to buy the results -- including paintings of the Fremont Bridge and other local landscapes -- at an auction.

Most of the money raised yesterday will go to causes supported by the Rotary Club, including B.F. Day Elementary School in Fremont.

Nicholas Ohlweiler, a fourth-grader at B.F. Day, was one of the artists painting the mostly nude bicyclists yesterday.

"I think it's good for art," he said.

Nicholas sold his oil pastel work and another painting for $25. He'll keep 40 percent, with 60 going to Fremont Rotary.

COMING UP

The Fremont Solstice Parade will start at noon Saturday at the corner of First Avenue Northwest and Leary Way and will end at Gas Works Park. For information, see www.fremontartscouncil.org

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