Video interview re: art/parenting

So there was this blog someone posted a link to online. This mother took her kids to the Milwaukee Art Museum and apparently she did not come away with a moving experience from the art. She referred to the Ellsworth Kelly as "primary colored rectangular pieces of crap". As they passed the Standing Woman, one of the girls "saw the HUGE backside she looked disgusted and said, 'I don't like that bum!' We actually passed this statue three times and every time we passed it Audrey closed her eyes and said, 'Tell me when we're passed that statue so I can open my eyes again.' I'm right there with you child!" And in the current Jan Lievens exhibit "as you turn the corner one of the first paintings you see is of a woman with her breasts hanging out. So ugly." and one of the girls commented "She is so immodest!" So this mother told them to close their eyes. "Seriously, I don't understand that kind of painting. It is not attractive to me at all and I was just as disgusted as Audrey was. It's times like those that I love having an unabashed five year old who will say out loud what I am thinking!" However, this woman really enjoyed some paintings of flowers and some pretty blown glass.

So this had been eating at me for days when I was approached by Mary Louise Schumacher who writes Art City for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. She suggested that a constructive response might be to do a video interview, one mom to another, about the matter, which can be seen here.

Of course all the thoughts & arguments that had been dancing in my head for nearly a week seemed to evaporate the moment a video camera was in my face. The point I wanted to get across was that this was never meant as an attack on this other mother, nor was it intended to be an art history lecture about the relevance or importance of the artworks in question, not for me anyway. This was simply supposed to be one mom to another mom. The most frightening part of the whole thing to me is not this woman's opinion of the art - its a matter of raising clones vs. raising kids who can think for themselves, who can ask questions and think critically, and don't just follow the herd, kids and parents engaging in intelligent discussions about things whether they agree or disagree on the matter at hand, so that they learn how to make good choices and grow up to be successful adults. Perhaps I did not convey this well enough to get my feelings across on the matter, but I was really nervous. This was certainly never intended to be a pissing match of any sort. But as an artist and a mother, the whole thing really got under my skin as very sad and unfortunate for these kids that they were missing out on a bigger learning opportunity.

Perhaps I should have just sat down with her over coffee so I could say to her in a pleading manner from across the table, don't you see what a disservice you are doing to your children when you don't allow them the opportunity to think outside of their comfort zone, encourage them to look at things from other perspectives to gain a deeper understanding of the world around them?? If you are raising your children to be just like you, little mini-me's, little clones, then whats the point? I realize it takes a lot of different types of people to make the world go round. Aren't kids people too, worthy of having their own unique experience? I believe each generation should push the limits of the one before it, this is how we make progress, learn, grow, make discoveries, etc. Let's open up a dialog with our kids, it will make them AND us better people. Be open minded. Or, are we just reproducing because kids are cute? That makes me very sad. Yes, kids are cute. But they are intelligent human beings full of limitless potential and they all deserve their own experience and parents who are willing to push themselves beyond their own comfort zones to help them achieve that higher, more meaningful existence. I don't know about anyone else, but I have found parenthood to be a HUGE learning & growing experience. Sometimes its about learning to let go of your expectations and go with the flow. Sometimes its about having to keep an open mind myself about things. If my child wants to be an athlete when she grows up, and I personally am not so into sports, should I discourage her from this? Absolutely not! I want her to be the best that she can be at whatever path she chooses. So I guess I've had a lot of time to think about this. And in a lot of ways, parenting is like an art form - seldom perfect, lots of 'happy accidents' or learning opportunities, always searching for answers and new techniques.