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Oregon School for the Deaf mural objections lead to altered art | statesmanjournal.com | Statesman Journal
John Roy Wilson spent the summer painting an outdoor mural in hopes of inspiring students at the Oregon School for the Deaf. On Friday, he'll return to cover up the quarter based on Pablo Picasso's "Guernica" because of complaints that it is too violent for children to view.
"I feel strangely kind of giddy," the retired art teacher said Wednesday evening, after hearing the decision from school director Patti Togioka. "Well, I've learned a lot. This will stir up a lot of curiosity. It will be a teachable moment. …. The kids are going to ask a lot of questions."
Togioka said she personally thinks the mural is beautiful. However, she received complaints from alumni and from parents of young children — she wouldn't give numbers or names — and had to consider them seriously.
"We respect our parents," she said. "As a leader, I want to respect the feelings of the parent; that is the person who will die for that child."
She said the controversy could become "a win-win situation" if Wilson re-creates the "Guernica" portion of the mural with high school students in their section of the school.
"We're a visual environment," she said. "I want this to be a place of art... (but) if there's ever a question, we have to go with what is best for the littlest kids."
Administrators requested a mural for a blank but much-used alley to honor school graduates who have gone on to higher education. Togioka said she didn't remember OK'ing a final design.
Wilson created four panels around a one-sided Möbius strip. One panel shows Don Quixote following his dream; opposite that is an adaptation of Picasso's famous anti-war painting, which Wilson said suggests the harm to which education can be put. On top are two hands inspired by Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel. Wilson left the final panel to be completed in collaboration with students this fall.
Wilson's first reaction on getting the verdict was to paint the entire wall over, he said — "but that was my 12-year-old mind speaking." He then decided to paint out the offending panel himself rather than leave the job for maintenance workers.
During the past couple of weeks, he said, he met with a father who had protested "swords, daggers, severed heads… a living nightmare for children" in the "Guernica" panel. In response, Wilson painted over a bare breast and modified a decapitated head and arm, but to no avail.
"He's not the enemy," Wilson said. "The enemy is ignorance and fear."
Laura Mack, an art instructor at Chemeketa Community College, spoke up for keeping the mural as is. She said she had seen photos of the work in progress because Wilson is taking her painting class.
"It's not a realistic mural that shows blood and guts and gore," she said. "It's a still image. Though it's dark in content, I do not feel it's brutal. It does convey the reality of war, but does it in a way that is quite different from what we are used to seeing in our visual culture."
She noted that young children watch movies such as "Bambi," in which a character dies. "These realities are known by children of that age," she said. "Sheltering them, I don't know what purpose that is."
Peter Bergel, director of Oregon PeaceWorks, noted that Wilson's mural fits perfectly with The MyPeace Project, a monthlong effort to imagine peace through the arts.
"If we limit what our children see and citizens see to the blandest and least offensive, our public discourse and public life will be hedged by blandness and mediocrity," he said.
John Roy Wilson spent the summer painting an outdoor mural in hopes of inspiring students at the Oregon School for the Deaf. On Friday, he'll return to cover up the quarter based on Pablo Picasso's "Guernica" because of complaints that it is too violent for children to view.
"I feel strangely kind of giddy," the retired art teacher said Wednesday evening, after hearing the decision from school director Patti Togioka. "Well, I've learned a lot. This will stir up a lot of curiosity. It will be a teachable moment. …. The kids are going to ask a lot of questions."
Togioka said she personally thinks the mural is beautiful. However, she received complaints from alumni and from parents of young children — she wouldn't give numbers or names — and had to consider them seriously.
"We respect our parents," she said. "As a leader, I want to respect the feelings of the parent; that is the person who will die for that child."
She said the controversy could become "a win-win situation" if Wilson re-creates the "Guernica" portion of the mural with high school students in their section of the school.
"We're a visual environment," she said. "I want this to be a place of art... (but) if there's ever a question, we have to go with what is best for the littlest kids."
Administrators requested a mural for a blank but much-used alley to honor school graduates who have gone on to higher education. Togioka said she didn't remember OK'ing a final design.
Wilson created four panels around a one-sided Möbius strip. One panel shows Don Quixote following his dream; opposite that is an adaptation of Picasso's famous anti-war painting, which Wilson said suggests the harm to which education can be put. On top are two hands inspired by Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel. Wilson left the final panel to be completed in collaboration with students this fall.
Wilson's first reaction on getting the verdict was to paint the entire wall over, he said — "but that was my 12-year-old mind speaking." He then decided to paint out the offending panel himself rather than leave the job for maintenance workers.
During the past couple of weeks, he said, he met with a father who had protested "swords, daggers, severed heads… a living nightmare for children" in the "Guernica" panel. In response, Wilson painted over a bare breast and modified a decapitated head and arm, but to no avail.
"He's not the enemy," Wilson said. "The enemy is ignorance and fear."
Laura Mack, an art instructor at Chemeketa Community College, spoke up for keeping the mural as is. She said she had seen photos of the work in progress because Wilson is taking her painting class.
"It's not a realistic mural that shows blood and guts and gore," she said. "It's a still image. Though it's dark in content, I do not feel it's brutal. It does convey the reality of war, but does it in a way that is quite different from what we are used to seeing in our visual culture."
She noted that young children watch movies such as "Bambi," in which a character dies. "These realities are known by children of that age," she said. "Sheltering them, I don't know what purpose that is."
Peter Bergel, director of Oregon PeaceWorks, noted that Wilson's mural fits perfectly with The MyPeace Project, a monthlong effort to imagine peace through the arts.
"If we limit what our children see and citizens see to the blandest and least offensive, our public discourse and public life will be hedged by blandness and mediocrity," he said.
