Article continues below advertisementAra Poppy was a struggling fine arts student making ends meet as a bartender when she realized her most profitable canvases weren't hanging in a gallery. While the world viewed erotic art as a hobby or a scandal, Poppy viewed it as a blueprint for her future financial freedom.The Spanish-born model and content creator spent her early twenties balancing retail shifts at an art supply store with a deep, private obsession: capturing the animalistic nature of the female body through photography and oil paint.