Spring 2001:     Teacher Bird
 Fall     2000 :     The Blind Art Teacher.
 Fall     2001:     The Primal Egg Drop
 
 

The Snorkeling Professor

Five minutes into Roger Payne's historic 1969 recording of  the "Songs of the Humpback Whales", some people are starting to accept the strangeness of the sounds and enjoy the lonely wails echoing from the vast depth of the Pacific Ocean.  Others are at the end of their aural rope and about to take matters into their own hands and pull the plug on the phonograph.
 All are art students meeting in a class for the first time.  There is no sign of the instructor but there is a burning candle on a white plate on a stool in the middle of the studio classroom.  There is also, an apple, a human skull, and a radiometer - one of those things that looks like a clear light bulb except it has black and white flags rapidly rotating from the pressure of light -  on plates on surfaces scattered around the room.
Slapping foot steps are heard coming down the hall.
They stop at the door.
 Crouching low near the floor, an old man in swim trunks, a T-shirt and dive mask, breathing through a snorkel, pulls himself into the room as if it were an underwater grotto.  He looks around and advances with swimming motions, his flippers slapping against the tile floor.  From behind his mask, his neck craning this way and that,  he peers at the whole room.  He "swims" over to a few students who giggle nervously as he closely inspects them.  Few notice he is holding a pencil.  He "swims" to inspect the apple, skull, radiometer and, finally the candle.  Next he "swims" to a table, picks up a pile of papers, the first day's hand-outs,  and distributes them to all the students.  He "swims" to the blackboard, writes, "Art 106 or 136"  and his name, "Jim Pallas".  Removing his mask, he says "I want to welcome you to the first day of this art class".  He sits on a table and, slipping his finger behind his heel, removes his flippers.  "I want to tell you all about this course because you should consider dropping it.  For many reasons, it is best to drop classes early."

Below are some of the responses to this event.

We are all connected to each other and to the earth in one way or another.  Often, our first connection is with sound. The sounds of the hump back whales are their way to connect to us. The sound of his breathing underwater and his swimming movement was his way of connecting to the creatures in the ocean. Also, his snorkel kept his connection to the earth above.  We all use some medium to make a  connection with each other.
Art is one way to make that connection.
Pam Suriano
....maybe it was some crazy idea "proven" somewhere that "when college students listen to the mating call of whales it makes them draw better" or something of the sort.
.....Why'd he do it?
There's gotta be a logical reason, right?   Does he scuba dive? If not, would he like to scuba dive? would he like to scuba dive with whales? would he like to scuba dive with whales WHILE DRAWING them?
(Ha ha. that was a joke.)
Is this meant to be some sort of inspirational thing?
Is there some hidden meaning behind this little performance with the scuba diving and whales or what?
Melissa Reyes
(Read in a sinister pirate voice)
 Aye!, The Snorkel Man comes lurking into the silenced room. He has found a classroom in the depths of the ocean.  He has chosen to check out what is
 going on.  The class had seemed to be waiting for this mystery Snorkel Man  to come and teach them.
. He swam around without speaking a word.   He seemed mute.
  After checking everything out, he swam to the board and wrote his
 name, "Pallas," and everyone was anxious if it was "The Pallas." He took off his mask to reveal to everyone's amazement that he was indeed  J. Pallas, the notorious fish artist, come to teach them how to draw fish.
 Fear turned to excitement when.......
       To Be Continued (for the class has only just begun!)
Michelle St. John
 


Adam Seymour

Artists are in some sense explorers, going places (even if only mentally) and looking at things other people don't normally see. A corollary to this concept of artist as explorer is that where they are going is not entirely hospitable. They can't stay there forever. It's not where they live. A snorkeler can only stay underwater for a brief period. An artist can only maintain her focus of eye and mind for a short time. Like scuba gear for the diver, there may be tools and techniques an artist can learn to extend that period, but her work time is still finite. Also implied is that there may be a degree of discomfort involved, and the acquisition of new skills. Swimming with a snorkel requires a bit of practice before one is confident one won't breathe in at the wrong time. There is an element of adventure, and an element of risk to being an explorer. When one charts new territory -- whether arctic, aquatic or artistic -- one  never knows what you'll find.
Let the journey begin!
Linda McLeod
.....our class represented a school of fish and
he was the diver exploring the abyss of our artistic talent.
Stacey Hollowaty
I waited outside the classroom, eager to find out why it was emanating sounds of people in severe emotional distress and physical pain. It was not long, however, before I learned that these sounds were in fact whale sounds one might hear beneath the ocean. I entered the classroom and noticed four objects on paper plates on desks including a light bulb on the desk at which I sat. None of these objects had any meaning for me.   I  patiently sat and waited for the class to begin.
Suddenly, I saw out of the corner of my eye, a man wearing snorkeling gear and flippers. Apparently, he was pretending to be underwater, swimming along the ocean floor. Carefully, he inspected each of the objects while perhaps contemplating the importance of each.

I remembered an invaluable lesson I learned too well from previous experience; one should always step back and take a careful look at the entire picture. Ideas don't always make much sense when you're preoccupied with details.
I had thought that each object existed isolated within itself. Now it occurred to me that those objects possessed a  relationship with each other.
 The human skull, for example, may represent our ancestors who came before us. The skull may even remind us of our own mortality, and how we will cope with life and eventually with death. The apple represents nourishment, which, sustains the body. But the apple could proverbially be construed as 'food' for the mind and soul. The light bulb stands for an idea or thought and signifies humankind's quest for knowledge and intelligence  Last, the lit candle reminds us that life also consists of philosophical ideas and, with wax's ability to change into various shapes and forms. our own subjectivity.  The fact that the swimmer is surrounded by water is significant. Water is a free-flowing substance, which can take the shape of any container, or simply run freely without direction. Thus, water signifies free will, independent thought, and the capacity to change.

The main idea that I derived from the performance piece as a whole is one that every student attempting to attain a higher education should contemplate and it is this: There are an infinite number of elements of which our world and our society consist that make us human beings. These elements are important and worth learning about because they are the foundation upon which we build.
Essentially, life is a process of learning, exploration, and experiences. Whether we know it or not, what we choose to do with every minute of our lives will affect and shape who we are as individuals. Fortunately, because we are creatures who are capable of intelligent thought, we have the gift of choice over what we desire to learn and experience throughout our lifetime. With this great gift of  'free will' most of us yearn to explore every facet of the world around us and realize that life will never cease to amaze us.
So in my opinion, Professor Pallas' performance is basically a ten-minute demonstration representing an entire lifetime.
Rychiee Espinosa

,....with the sound of whales in the background, and the way he entered the class, I feel that he was reenacting his vacation.
 Johnetta Martin


Latesha Richardson

    As the calming whale and sea noises filled the dark  quiet room, a sense of ranquility and meditation freeing the mind started drifting into my thoughts.
The door opened and a man "swam" through it with flippers and a snorkel on.
My interpretation is that this act or performance was how someone would interpret a  new experience.  I feel it was a way of exploring the new and realizing it won't be that bad.  I also feel that the act was a way to start the class with a cleansing of the mind and be centered and prepared for the day's challenges.
Laura Junga


..... when the humor faded, I thought to myself that this was an art class and what I was seeing was going on for a reason and I began to think that I was witnessing what everyone really does everyday. We look at things in our own views and we are all exploring new things in college and in the classes we take. We need to see things as if we have never seen them before because when we first view something, it is all new and has the potential to become something great in our own eyes.
Chrissy Kadets

EYESIGHT
INSIGHT
FISHEYE VIEW.
CAN YOU SEE WHAT I SEE TOO?
 

CALLING,
SPLASHING,
WHALES ARE SINGING.
THROUGH THE WATER SOUNDS ARE RINGING.
 

MAMMALS.
MAN AND
FISH ARE BONDING.
CAN ALL LIFE BE SO RESPONDING?

Elizabeth Rode
            Kelly O'Hara

If one decides to go diving in water one must have some interest in finding out what this void possesses. There is a symbiotic relationship between self and environment. It is essential to see how we are structured and how we structure our world so we may adapt. This adaptation I believe is the foreground of survival and creativity.
 The first object he swam to was a human skull. This displays a human aspect of mortality. Our physical consciousness is limited by time, but our hope is that we can make something that will last longer than us. Preserving an idea though writing, drawing, recording can present an instance of our perception so we can still speak after we are dead.
 Next he swam to an apple. This represents our reliance on surroundings. We eat food to live just as we breathe air, see light, and drink water. I think our senses act the same. We interpret what we see, hear, smell, taste, and feel and make ideas, knowledge, and (back when we were tiny organisms) communicating reactions like emotions. As in the story of Genesis, this knowledge we gain eventually leads to our destruction. Our cognition is something we cannot live without, but it will eventually determine our choices in life and their consequences
 The next object he encountered was a scientific measuring instrument for detecting subatomic particles. It is a tool to help us understand our world better. Even though we cannot see everything in the cosmos, we can make ideas and assumptions, and we can hypothesize, experiment, and theorize the nature of our ever-questioning mind. Theories are neither right nor wrong, and with this in mind, there are endless possibilities.  This should give us confidence in our work and in our life.
 Finally he swam to the lit candle. We have been using fire since the time of the Neanderthal and even today it still amazes us and can symbolize all that has value in our lives. There is no light at the end of the tunnel because there is no end of the tunnel.
Thomas Beste


The room filled with teardrops. And you had to
come in that way to hook the fish. Some of us were fast, big
black eyes undulating to the corner, most just tilted
backward. It didn't matter. The blade slipped easily into
bubbling mouths, prying loose front teeth, sending them to
the ceiling in a floating mist of blood. You netted the
trophies. We sat there, open-mouthed, in a quiet panic,
bumping our noses against each others' assholes or the
other way around. Then, you gave us lungs filled with baby
eels, rusted bicycles, mashed coils of wet hair,
blankets, perpsective, whole city blocks, kitchens, dining
room tables, cubes, cylinders, spheres, charcoal, paint,
rubber cement and it was something better coming up.
 
thanks,
Bonwell - fall class 2002
 
p.s. the cia fbi dea men in black men in suspenders will most
assuredly scan this, as they do everything.
I wore a poka-dot tie on a black sweater when they got me