{"id":1586,"date":"2010-02-23T19:26:26","date_gmt":"2010-02-24T03:26:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp\/2010\/02\/ryan_henry_ward_-_whimsy_hits\/"},"modified":"2010-02-23T19:26:26","modified_gmt":"2010-02-24T03:26:26","slug":"ryan_henry_ward_-_whimsy_hits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/2010\/02\/ryan_henry_ward_-_whimsy_hits.html","title":{"rendered":"Ryan Henry Ward – whimsy hits the wall"},"content":{"rendered":"

Previous, much commented upon, post: Ryan Henry Ward gives Seattle a bad case of the cutes<\/i><\/a>.<\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1586","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1586","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1586"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1586\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}