Looky Loo!
By Brenda Bolinger
Claremont COURIER/Saturday, April 12, 2008

Not one to bypass an irresistible opportunity to be playful -- playfully crude, that is -- artist Dee Marcellus Cole said, "I hope nobody craps out." But never has bathroom humor been more apropos. Potty-mouthed Ms. Cole was referring to participants in the second-ever "Looky Loo Tour," a self-guided traipse through 30 Pomona Arts Colony bathrooms, organized by the dA Center for the Arts.

"It's sort of like a treasure hunt," said Ms. Marcellus Cole, 48-year Upland resident and founding board member of the dA Center.

Preparations for the event, which will take place on Saturday, April 19, resonate with an "If you build it, they will come" spirit: all Looky Loo proceeds will go toward installing a "real" bathroom at the dA.

Looky Loo 1 took place in 2000 with 20 participating venues and over 100 curious people peeking in the privies. The inaugural potty parade was extremely well received, inspiring almost a decade of the same question posed to Ms. Marcellus Cole: "When are you going to do it again?" Pitching the original idea to the dA Center board of directors was fun for Ms. Marcellus Cole, who received a purely positive and supportive reaction -- but, she noted, they thought she was at least slightly crazy.

"They were all for it. 'Sure, go ahead Dee,'" she said in imitation of fellow dA board members.

Bathrooms highlighted this year will be both "as is," meaning no special artistic effort will be devoted to altering the bathroom from its normal condition, as well as bathroom outlandishly designed and constructed for humorous, educational or purely artistic purpose. The latter will certainly provide the most outrageous surprise.

Recalling a memorable Looky Loo lavatory from 2000, Ms. Marcellus Cole described a venue at which a cat often slept in the window. Inside, artificial grass wound its way around the establishment, eventually leading up a ramp around which a number of director's chairs and cameras were situated. And, at the end of the ramp, a kitty litter box sat under a spotlight.

"That was one of my favorites," Ms. Marcellus Cole said.

Another celebrated commode from Looky Loo 1, built literally from the ground up, stood at Galeria Rustica. Real dirt was hauled into the gallery of a Mexican toilet, explained Ms. Marcellus Cole. Cleaning up this authentic bathroom was quite an endeavor, she continued, guessing that the gallery would opt for something more tidy this year.

Among the attractions on this year's Looky Loo map will be a potty-training-themed bathroom designed by A.S. Ashley at his art studio. On his toilet, Mr. Ashley posted a 1956 photo of himself sitting on a "little duck potty" in front of the television.

"According to my mother, she could never get me to stay on it. It had a little seat belt, and I would literally stand up and walk around with this thing attached to my ass," Mr. Ashley said. "But if she put me in front of the TV, I would stay there."

Mr. Ashley's inventive and nostalgic design will also feature a potty-training video playing on a television as well as other entertaining features.

Also the dA Center's assistant curator, Mr. Ashley believes that bathroom fascination is a natural phenomenon.
"I think people are intrigued, from the time kids found they could throw things in the toilet and flush them down…by these porcelain structures that collect all our wonderfulness and make it go away," he said. "And just the bathroom itself has become a sort of shrine to all kinds of things: people who are getting ready to go out, getting ready for big events, they make themselves beautiful and wonderful in bathrooms."

Along with fellow dA board member and artist, "Rolo," Mr. Ashley is designing and painting one of the 3 porta-potties that will be exhibited along the tour route. Ms. Marcellus Cole is downright giddy about acquiring the portable potties and cannot wait to behold the artistic flair adorning each one come Looky Loo day. In what she called "a real coup, a real adventure," Ms. Marcellus Cole secured the porta-potties as a donation from AAA Portable Restroom Company in Upland.

"Then I turned them over to the curator and said, 'Just make it so they can't use it,'" she said.

Functionality cast aside, Mr. Ashley and Rolo have opted for a Buck Rogers theme for their blank canvas, a.k.a. a pristine porta-potty.

"Usually, the first thing that people think about when they think about astronauts is how do they do their 'duty?'" Mr. Ashley joked. "When it's all said and done, it will look pretty much like a space capsule."

Monochrome no longer, the porta-potty's interior and exterior have been distinctly refashioned, space-style. Will it answer the question (according to Mr. Ashley, the ubiquitous question) about astronauts "duty"? Well, no. But perhaps this is best.

Tour-takers will have the chance to win a door prize, which will be wrapped in - what else? -- Toilet paper. One lucky Looky Loo-er will take home the book, Toilets Around the World.

"This book is worth it for the pictures alone," stated a review on amazon.com. "It will bring back memories for anyone who has ever encountered a toilet that they just weren't sure how to use."

And if this hasn't happened to you yet, it just might next Saturday. Who knows what sort of outrageous or beautiful or whimsical bathrooms await those who dare to tread where many have, ahem, gone before: not even Ms. Marcellus Cole.

"I don't know and I don't really want to know what people are going to do this year. It's going to be a surprise for me, too, "she said. "It's a creative community and when you're dealing with that, their minds just go, go, go."
Looky Loo 2 will take place from noon to 5 p.m. next Saturday, April 19. Tickets may be purchased for $10 at the dA Center for the Arts, 252-D S. Main St., Pomona. Maps of the 30 Pomona Arts Colony venues -- galleries, lofts and businesses -- will be given out at the dA on the day of the tour.
Information: 909-397-9716.