I don't have time for tumblr discourse they're calling the very hungry caterpillar degenerate art over on twitter
good art is when something looks like real life, the more real it looks the more better the art. abstracted figures give my trad children nightmares, one time they were exposed to cubism and couldn't go outside for a week
So Megha has determined that she is the arbiter of what art is ugly and what is beautiful, because, I dunno, she's perfect.
Cast aside the fact that Eric Carle's art has been adored by children for a couple generations now, and even inspired some to become artists. Or that his compositions, seen IRL, are stunning, with his use of materials, textures, and color.
"Good art is when something looks like real life." So let's junk "ugly" art such as, oh, I dunno,
I mean, the night sky doesn't look like that mess at ALL, does it?
And maybe "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" isn't meant as a Field Guide to Bug Identification. Maybe it's an imaginative tale, vibrant with colors and shapes that very young children are attracted to. Maybe its intent and purpose isn't to Teach A Lesson. Maybe it's just meant to be enjoyed for the delight its visuals bring, and very young children understanding what it's like to be very hungry and finding what the caterpillar does is funny.
Maybe the kind of art Carle made, using tissue paper, paint, brushes, sponges, burlap, then tearing them and putting them together as collages, is the kind of art very young children enjoy making. Because very young children are typically not able to create realistic art, and are very attracted to shapes and color. That is, when adults allow them to play around with materials without being told what's "good" and what's "ugly."
"Let the blobby artists starve on their own egos." Well, Carle didn't starve. He was one of the most successful and beloved children's illustrators, ever. And he used his money and his "ego" to build The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art, where the work of all artists who do all styles of art can be celebrated and studied.
This woman is probably outraged every time she walks through Barnes & Noble's children's section. I mean, just look at all the unrealistic, anatomically incorrect depictions of Nature:
A pigeon who wants to drive a bus! You don't see REAL pigeons like this!!
Well . . . um . . .
OK, that's the subway, and he wasn't driving!
Amphibians on a bicycle! Wearing clothes!!
Do THESE look like real animals to you??
Seriously, the only reason a child would be traumatized by "abstracted figures" is because their mother told them to be, told them that it was ugly and horrible. Left to decide for themselves, most children are fascinated by abstraction. Because most young children's art looks like this:
God help this woman's children if they try drawing. Because you can guess what kind of criticism she makes about how their art isn't realistic.
I hope her kids rebel against her, become artists creating installations and collages and paintings like these:
