the strangest tip i will ever hear from a teacher at byu.

I attended an art opening at the Central Utah Arts Center on Friday night. (The picture above is from the exhibition.) I wrote up a little report on it for my 2D design class and handed it to my teacher yesterday just as class was ending.

"So, how was the show?"
"It was fine; I had a nice time. . ."
"And who all was there?"
I begin to answer and at this point the conversation somehow drifts to the unusual. He starts telling me about how one of his artist friends who's making it big in galleries all over Europe is actually sleeping with female critics and gallery owners and that's essentially why his work is being shown.
"But," he adds, "if you're female you don't really have to take it that far."
"What?!"
"Oh no, for real, females can just wield their womanly whiles without doing anything technically immoral."
"But I would never do that!"
"Of course you wouldn't, and I'm not telling you to. It's just that art is ruled by money the way all other institutions are. There are things people do to get ahead."
"Good thing I'm just a graphic design major."
"Yeah, you probably won't have to sink that far..."

Really my teacher is a guy who just graduated with an MFA in sculpture at BYU and hates the fact that he is teaching at the school he just graduated from.

(This is a drawing of a pencil sharpener that I had to do in his class.)







But I'll admit that our discussion did get me thinking...not that I'm planning on climbing any kind of social ladder through immoral deeds, but I think there are little things in this vein of social functioning that occur on a fairly regular basis.

For example, I've noticed that one of my scuba instructors may find me attractive enough to give me just a little extra attention. It's not like he's done anything that could be misconstrued as anything inappropriate and I'm not accusing him of that.
But two weeks ago he offered to let me put my scuba gear in the back of his truck when we were done diving so that he could take it back to the shop and put it away for me. Everyone else has to drive there the next day and lug all that heavy equipment in and put it away themselves.
During class time and while we dive he talks to me quite a bit and gives me just a few more high fives than the average pupil regularly receives.

For class this week, I decided to take the equipment back to my car and lug it all myself. I drove to the scuba shop this morning, pulled right up to the doors (because that equipment is waaay to heavy to drag across the parking lot), and started unloading my stuff. Before I could even grab all of it, my scuba teacher emerged from the doors of the shop.
"I thought you were gonna put your stuff in the back of my truck again."
"Uh... yeah, I just forgot I guess..."
He grabs the bag of gear from my hands.
"Well hey, I'll just take it all in for you. Don't worry about it putting away; I've got it."
"Really? Thanks. That's so nice of you."
"Sure, no problem; have a good day."
"Yeah, you too."

Do I feel bad about this? Probably not; as long as it doesn't go much further than that. But, at the core, I confess I do feel just a little uncomfortable; like I wonder if I'm really doing the right thing to allow the slightly special treatment to go on.