Timing: James Surls at SMU

James Surls 

James Surls 

James Surls 

James Surls 

James Surls 

James Surls 

Timing is everything. The great Texas sculptor and teacher James Surls only taught at SMU from 1970-1975. That's 10 regular semesters (not counting any special Summer sessions). 

I had him for an introductory studio art "foundation" course, "Materials and Concepts (3-D)," in 1974 or 1975. Around this same time Surls had an artistic "breakthrough" and created many of his seminal wood pieces. The works from this era still rank among my favorites. 

I had the best -- instruction from this visionary artist -- right off the bat. It was lucky timing, plain and simple. "Must be present to win."

James Surls

The second annual studio exhibition hosted by James Surls, who has migrated from the thicket of East Texas to the high-altitude of Carbondale, Colorado.

Here's a recent photo of one of my first studio art professors from the long-ago SMU art years, sculptor James Surls. Surls looked like a deep woods mountain man in 1974, and he outraged the entire art faculty by announcing to his Materials and Concepts class, "Everyone in my class gets an 'A' whether they come or not, or what they do. You can even leave if you want to."

 Half the class never came back after that announcement. Most of the survivors didn't quite believe him. Surls made good on his promise and gave everyone an 'A,' much to the disgust of some of the more talented students who felt sleighted after they'd knocked themselves out cranking out superior sculpture projects. It never bothered me. I wanted to learn about art, and getting an easy 'A' wasn't so bad. The seventies was a really different time!