Posted on 02/09/2005 10:44:05 PM PST by hipaatwo
By MARK REYNOLDS The Providence Journal February 08, 2005
PROVIDENCE, R.I. - Jeffrey Eden devised his award-winning project less than 30 minutes after his high-school art teacher asked him to express a thought or two in a three-dimensional way.
So, in the wake of last year's polarizing election and the war in Iraq, the 17-year-old built an abstract scene comparing President Bush's war policies with Adolf Hitler's pillage of Europe.
The student's diorama-like assemblage juxtaposes Hitler quotes with Bush statements, Nazi swastikas with American flags, desert-colored toy soldiers with olive plastic figures. And so on.
Eden said he's trying to point out certain similarities between the U.S.-led war in Iraq and the German blitzkrieg - without actually equating Hitler to Bush.
In this, the success of his project is debatable.
Nonetheless, it has earned the Charlestown student a silver key at the Rhode Island Scholastic Art Awards. It has also tested the contest's commitment to an overriding principle: that students should be encouraged to express their own thoughts through art.
The piece, titled "Bush/Hitler and How History Repeats Itself," triggered a complaint soon after it was displayed at a store with other award-winning entries last week.
"It's offensive to me," said Paul Lewis, a 34-year-old North Providence man.
Lewis asked that Eden's piece be removed and phoned newspapers as well as TV stations. He said he sees zero relationship between the policies of Bush and Hitler.
"It's a stretch," he said.
Lewis said the piece poorly conveys what Eden told The Providence Journal he was trying to convey because it leaves too much to interpretation. Someone might think the artist believes the president is as evil as Hitler, he said.
"I believe he should have been a lot more clear in putting those two things together," Lewis said.
The store refused to remove the exhibit, but the store did attach a disclaimer. The views of the artist do not represent the store, it said.
"We don't censor art," said store owner Hershel Alpert. "We're not in the business of censoring art."
Eden hopes to study art after he graduates from Chariho Regional High School next year. Eden said that although he supports U.S. soldiers, he believes the invasion of Iraq was unjustified.
The recent election in Iraq has not changed his views.
"At the time we invaded we did not have the justification nor the intelligence to take him (Saddam Hussein) out the way we did," he said.
Eden thinks the work is comparing Hitler and Bush - not equating them.
"I felt I was clear about what I was trying to get across," he said. "I believe those who misconstrued the artwork didn't take the time to really read into it."
His teacher, Lynn Norton, believed he got his point across. She gave him an A.
My thoughts too. Not only is it uncreative, he paints at a 3rd grade level.
Ya should've gone with the old standard: Kerry-Lurch
It absolutely frosts me that kids are so stupid that they equate Hitler with Bush. Is the distinction of killing people vs. freeing two nations beyond their grasp?
I think Jo the nanny would have him stand in the corner - or rather his teachers.
Sure, free to express. Uh-huh. Riiiiggght. I get it.
Because you just know the same group of fanatics would say EXACTLY THE SAME if the kid decided to portray the late MLK, Jr. as a thick-lipped, bug-eyed Step-n-Fetchit character. They'd say the same. Sure they would.
Unfortunately there's only one Jo the nanny to go around. The kid's teachers might only be somewhere down on the list.
Oh-some Hollywierd lib will probably pay him big money to put on an exhibit. His art may stink, but there are plenty of morons out there who share his contorted worldview.
How can students be rewarded for being so factually wrong?
He may have gotten a A in art, But I bet he failed Gym.
First mention of Hitler loses! He should have gotten an F.
What a brainwashed little punk.
I just spoke with the principal. He is passing on a message to the parents to get permission for me to interview him.
Would you please ask him where he got the idea that Bush is like Hitler.
I think a better title for the piece would have been "Leftists Are Hysterical Morons With A Limited Sense of History"
Yes.
Too bad that the "teacher" doesn't realize that it's really trite, shallow propaganda that didn't develop the student's skills. This piece of "abstract" art done by a 17-year-old could have been a one-hour diorama by a third-grader. Once again, grade inflation is alive and well.
Ping. Don't miss this.
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