Naked Truth Through the Ages

Re “Plain Brown Wrapper Greets LAX Terminal’s New Artwork,” July 19: As a 51-year-old artist’s model, I have the privilege of offering my nude body as inspiration to thousands of artists and students yearly. We models are living manifestations of an ancient, highly respected tradition, one that has played a major ongoing role in sparking cultural self-identity worldwide over the ages.

No way around it: To view the human figure--or sensitively rendered artistic interpretations--as anything less than examples of the crown of creation itself--God’s masterpiece on Earth--is to admit to personal self-loathing on some level, regardless of how it’s camouflaged in self-righteous, puritanical revulsion by a vocal “sex equals sin”-obsessed minority. If a 10-second walk over classic beauty set in stone can threaten to ruin some people’s day, I say their troubles began long before they reached that terminal. I would seriously advise these folks to avoid all art museums, most galleries, TV, movies, billboards, the beach, university sculpture gardens, the Sistine Chapel and the “David” at Caesar’s Palace. The person might have a coronary, and have to be carried out on a stretcher.

Mark Snyder

Los Angeles

I suggest that, had these images been nude women rather than men, there would be no question about whether they should adorn the floor of LAX.

Gerhard Thornton

Montebello