irhe Grinnell Scarlet and Black, October .10, 1§75vp. 5

‘Take action; move on a feeling now

At Grinnell iew women worry
about equal pay for equal work or
discrimination in granting credit.
For four years we are allowed the
luxury to worry about self
development, our health, and our

‘L relationships, No matter how often

we read or hear about political
issues, such as the ERA, they
rarely affect us directly. Our

tpapers and moods take priority.

Subsequently any writings on
feminism outside of the issues that
concern Grinnellians directly fall

. on aware but generally uninr
Cr

1c

ﬁcffiicted With a

terested ears. But in trying to

reach readers, a columnist should
write on areas of interest, So , t .
After asking a few friends about
their major interests, I narrowed
the categories down to school work
and relationships. 1 refuse to write
on studies since we all must cope
daily with our education. And so we
turn to category Number Two. But
what is there to say about
relationships? Some people have
them; most people do not, Love is
idealized by the media and deemed
a necessity by society.
Grinneilians worry about falling
in love much of the time but few

take direct actions in that realm.
We content ourselves with
dreaming about love and reading
intellectual history. We conduct
ourselves like high school friends
at times by being palsin the Forum
and hustlers in the Pub. We wait
around for the other person to
make the first, second, and third

édna’a‘

moves and then we wonder if they
really like us, When nothing works
out, we rationalize that friends are

Exotic cartels exhibited

by Jeffrey Miller
Many people assume that the
Scheaffer Gallery and the Forum
basement are the only places on
this Campus in which art is dis-

3’played. However, any resident or

visitor of the Carrels on Burling
Second will deny this assertion
vehemently. We are going to
examine and review what is
probably the most noteworthy
. carrel displayithat of Russian
impressionist Marc Miller.

The word “carrel” is derived
from the Lation "Caerelum,"
which loosely translates as
“Showplace of the Seventies," and
Marc Miller’s carrel certainly
lives up to this description, with its
diverse styles and abundance of
color. The first work in the Carrel is
a painting of the words ”Bruce

‘ Springsteen," done by German B.

Springsteen. Springsteen was
personality
V disorder which evidenced itself in
his paintings, all of which feature
only his name. This particular

painting is from Springsteen‘s

Q"white“ period, which as he notes

in his autobiography “Those
Romatic Young Cubists (All They

Ever Want to Do Is Paint)" occurs
during the trauma following the
month anniversary of the death of
close spiritual friend Attilathe
Hun, Thus, Miller gives us one of
the most tormented, anguished
works of any artist ever to live—a
true coup d’grace for his carrel
display.

One then takes in the famous
Stanfield drawings of “Dick and
Don,” Stanfield, greatly inﬂuenced
by Dali in his early years, here has
transcended Surrealism and
branched into a new art form7
perhaps “mondorealism‘Lwith
this hilarious series of drawings of
a student and his history professor
amusingly entitled “Chocolate
Sandwich.” This is followed by a
painting from the Latvian ex-
patriate K. Shashok, Using her
favorite medium of glitter
fingernail polish, Shashok has
created a stunning mural of the
Crab Nebula, which she has
somewhat confusingly titled ”Todd
Rundgren.” A sense of the cosmos
and the space-time continuum is
beautifully realized in this work,
although one can question
Shashok’s overuse of blue glitter.

The final work on this panel is
done by Ms. rt. Miller and is titled
“Opening Night," a pen-and-ink
drawing a Bosch-like mood in this
work, particularly in the ugly.
deformed waiters. Ms, Miller, a

healthier and less trouble than
lovers,
Perhaps the Grinnell attitude is

the correct one for this situation,

for school work has the first
priority in any student’s life. We
can experience a variety of people
if we do not limit ourselves by
involvement, The daily gossip
created by confined living
situations is avoided somewhat by
worrying alone rather than acting
openly.

But We can manufacture excuses
and rationalizations in almost
every phase of our lives; why not

there is, in fact, no navel. A lot of
hair and a beltbuckle. to be sure7
but no navel—a brilliant parody of
Eastern religions, of which Miller
once said “Bhagavad who?" These
photostats have been beautifully

05556 and 029mm

relatively new artist, shows a
great deal of promise and further
drawings of hers. particularly the
soon to be completed “Nude with a
Cucumber,” are eagerly an»
licipated.

Turning to the back panel, one is
immediately faced with Marc
Miller’s own works Miller‘s
medium is photostat, and Miller
presents two of the finest examples
of that genre with the deeply
moving “Self Portrait" and the
light “Naval of the Week." The
former shows a hideous, tortured,
Xeroxed facemthe artist in conﬂict
with a plastic society. The latter
distorts one’s sense of reality7

crafted and are exemplar of the
medium. There are other
photostats on Burling Second,
including one some charlatan has
placed in the Miller display—these
are shoddy commercial works for
tourists and should be ignored.

A carrcl display is not complete
without photography, and Miller’s
carrel is no exception to the rule,
Two photographs taken by
Rumanian camera artist County
Bytenz appear hereiboth oi
Serbian peasants doing the
traditional “Oxen on Crutches”
dance. One might question Bytenz'
choice ofsubject; nevertheless, the
photos are technical and symbolic

move on a feeling now? A decisive
step could be the correct one even
if it appears to be an enormous
risk.

But enough preaching about
love; i will return to my room to

'fantasize and to study and hence-

forth 1 will confine my columns to
more tangible, political subjects.

Anyway, as a friend calmly
commented, “If we didn‘t worry
about love as much as we do, we
probably never would get together
even as friends.”

gems.

Finally, one comes to the
highlight of the display—an
anonymous crayon drawing en-
titled “Beware My Wheels." This
Dadaresque drawing shows a
traffic light with its tongue sticking
out. a policeman holding a loaf of
French bread, and a motorist who
resembles Mr. Clean driving a
three~wheeled automobile. While
no clue is provided as to the artist’s
identity, the extensive use of
Crayola indicates a possible link to
the Skokie school. Major
calligraphic work was performed
by Miller and Stanfield in order to
make the drawing publicly
presentable. Miller interprets the
work as being based on a scene
from either “A Clockwork
Orange" or “Here at the New
Yorker." A suberb and rare find
which excellently rounds out the
display,

This is a brilliant exhibit which
should be enjoyed at length. For
those interested in creating their
very own carrels, copies of an
instruction sheet are available
from Mr. Miller at his carrel.

A community through caring

by Rick Dchllo

Much has been said recently
about the desirability of enhancing
the “sense of community" on the
Grinnell campus, As I speculate
about the reasons for the alleged
void in that area, i am confronted
by the diverse composition of the
community as a plausible starting
point. As has been stated by others
before, we are a conglomeration of
very different, and sometimes
eccentric, individuals. Most of us
pride ourselves on our in-

dividualism and if someone were to
suggest that we are no different
than any other college students, we
would object rather strenuously
Additionally, each of us is at-
tending this institution for What
may be very differeil‘ reasons and
this may lead us to mistakenly
conclude that, because we have so
little in common on the surface, it
would be very difficult for us to
exist as a homogeneous come
munity.

To some extent, this is probably
true. but if we take the time to look
closely at ourselves, we may
discover that we have more in
common With other people than
we’d sometimes like to admit. We
all have some very basic social
needs and, for us to maintain
some semblance of emotional
equilibrium, these needs have to be
at least partially fulfilled.

It has also been said that the
college experience. by its very
nature, is a lonely one. I find
myself forced to dispute that
because the time one spends in
college is perhaps the most imr
portant in terms of the amount of
growth and personal change that
takes place, and these changes

cannot occur in a social vacuum. It
is true that we may spend much
time in solitude, but that time is
spent reﬂecting on experiences
with others and what the imr
plications of those experiences are
to us. Each of us needs other
people. intellectually we’re aware
that all those strangers around us
are plagued with many of the same
frailties that we are, but we never
accept that on a gut level, thus, the
unreasonable fear of those we don't
“know."

It is this fear that leads me to
believe that trying to develop a
spirit of caring on campus is a
worthwhile endeavor. It may be
terribly idealistic to think that
basic human problems can be
totally eliminated but, never
theless, I feel it is a valuable goal
towards which to work, Even
partial attainment of this goal
would bring us closer to the per-
sonal stability we all desire.

How do we develop this elusive
attitude? I think it would be fair to
say that no amount of structural or
administrative change will do it for
us, The desire to change must
come from within each of us.
Perhaps a little less of our at-

tention focused on ourselves would
be a good starting point. We could
take a few minutes each day to
really try to notice those around us,
try to learn something about those
for whom we care, by observation
or communication, whether it be
verbal, written or tactile. For a
moment we could try to look
beyond the surface impressions
and attempt to understand what
lies beneath, what makes each of
us the very special individuals that
we are, When engaging in ac
tivities that may have an effect on
others we could think for a moment
about what the effect will be and, if
positive, continue, and if negative.
reevaluate.

These are all little things and, in
most cases, are probably second
nature to us, but sometimes we
have a tendency to become bogged
down by our own problems and we
forget about those around us. It is
at those times, in particular, that it
may do us the most good to change
the focus of our concentration. If
we are to develop into a com-
munity (there‘s that word again),
each of us has to care first.

 

