Previous, much commented upon, post: Ryan Henry Ward gives Seattle a bad case of the cutes.
What made this post so objectionable to many appears to be my distaste for whimsy. Who could be against whimsy? I must be a monster. Possibly I needed more context. I associate the word, which comes from whim, with the kind of art that’s deliberately impersonating the drawings of children. It’s a step backwards to achieve an innocence not possible for adults.
No matter how technically inept, drawings from real children have a purity and grace. Fake children can no longer inhabit that experience. They can’t be what they once were, with chubby little fingers holding their crayons.
Certain folk artists draw in a style associated with childhood, but there’s a crucial difference in delivery. They’re serious. They have whittled away at their form, battered it down to a primal event instead of borrowing it from the five-year-olds in their lives.
For me, Ward is a prime offender in the we-won’t-grow-up art whimsy movement. His calcified cute clogs arteries. Even so, I don’t mind that he has a mural or two around Seattle. Had he done a few, I wouldn’t have said a word. But he’s big into volume, volume, volume. Fifty murals, 70 murals: He keeps changing the number. In a recent email, he said (contradicting an earlier one), that he has completed 48 public murals in Seattle and plans to do more.
What makes him think he’s entitled to that much public space? The business people who pay him don’t own the city. Everyone who lives here does. There are street artists/muralists I love, but I wouldn’t presume to suggest any one of them blanket Seattle with his wares. In public art, diversity is essential. There’s room for Ward, but not as much room as he insists on taking.
One more phrase to consider: ad hominem, or arguing through personal attack. You sweetness and light people appear to have hair-trigger tempers. A sizable number of you quickly devolve into playground name calling. No wonder you like artists who impersonate children.
Though I agree with one of the previous comments that you engaged in sensationalist journalism by overstating your case, I have enjoyed the results. Seattle is having an art argument! It’s great. Thanks Regina.
As a head-over-heels admirer of children’s art I’d have to take exception to your stated presumption that Mr. Ward’s work might be “deliberately impersonating the drawings of children”. His work, as I see it, is an attempt by an adult at communicating to children in such a way that they might find what he does interesting.
At most, and perhaps this is his goal, is that his paintings create a happy, colorful environment into which a child might feel comfortable. Kind of like entering a daycare.
As a former school bus driver to Lowell on Capitol Hill, I would pass his painting daily on a long wall on the back side of the school. Although this artistic effort of his did not resonate with me I did continually attempt to elicit some verbal response from my busload of children. I’ve got to say, they were unimpressed. Even when I pointed out to a favorite student of mine named Henry that he shared a name with the artist, I was unable to detect any excitement at all. They were hopelessly uncaring over Mr. Ward’s work.
For myself, I have attempted more than once to draw like a child and I have found it impossible to do so. Nevertheless, my admiration for this fleeting and highly legitimate art form remains strong, so much so that I have recently embarked on a series of paintings where I have intentionally decided to create an interplay between my own abilities and the artwork I’ve been collecting from my grandson(yes Regina, he is 5yrs. old).
As was Picasso, who publicly admitted he spent his entire adult life attempting to create art like a child, I too am amazed at the conceptual sophistication and the narative ingenuity of children as they explain through pictures, their views on life.
In my own series of paintings, I intend to abandon any attempts at duplication, but will continue to aspire to the same set of goals I have always worked towards, namely, speaking to the viewer in a manner that for me is only successful through the making of pictures.
As a postscipt, while driving my schoolbus and as I was awaiting my students, I would pass away my time drawing and for some of these students, my drawings became something for them to look foward to. As they entered my bus they would eagerly ask to see my drawing’s progress and would pass them around to each other with comments. It was a wonderful experience and I always looked foward to hearing all of their observations.
When my breif career as a driver ended in June I made copies of those drawings and handed them out along with a note of fond farewell and encouraged all who might be interested to give me their own drawings in return. I must say that I acquired a few treasures as well as a wonderfull outpouring of affection from both students and their parents.
Im getting sleepy from reading this boring lame comeback. You got schooled Regina, and you cant just admit it.
i just now discovered this little thing. hilarious! i think you, regina, are much more whimsical than henry. the thought of a city becoming overtaken by cuteness is hilarious to me. the fact that someone out there is fearful for seattle, losing its integrity as a rainy city because of one man and his art is beyond absurd.
and for the record, the business people who pay him kind of do own the city. they own the buildings and seattle would be just another lame town like renton without them. so if those businesses want the buildings to be covered in tucans and talking cows, all the power to them.