About That Headless, Bare-Breasted Statue in the Overland Park, Ks. Arboretum

It's not a question of what; it's a question of where.

arboretum (n.) - a facility where trees and shrubs are cultivated for exhibition.

The Overland Park arboretum is not an art museum. This sculpture needs to be removed, and the Parks Board members who approved it taken to task for their calloused judgment in this matter.

From Heather Staggers & Laura McCallister at KCTV5:

"A statue at the Overland Park Arboretum and Botanical Gardens is raising some eyebrows - some even say it has no place in the park. One mother has started a petition to get a particular sculpture removed from a public park because of its nudity. But some disagree and say art should not be censored...

The sculpture titled Choice is part of an international art exhibit. The artist is from China. Eleven pieces were donated as a gift to the arboretum but, gift or not, Hughes wants it gone."

Mary Sanchez at my long ago employer agrees this bronze sculpure is art, and those who don't appreciate it are unrefined rubes in need of 'art appreciation classes.' Or something. But Mrs. Sanchez is missing an important message when she recommends art appreciation classes in response to this kerfuffle.
 
I do agree that most folks have only a passing knowledge of art. For instance, Da Vinci's 'Lisa,' or Monet's 'Water Lilies,' or Venetian tapestries. Those works were the pinnacle of many artists' skill and craft which paid homage to God's Creation in form and substance, sweat and ingenuity.

The nude human forms seem to be the most famous with the general public: Botticelli's Venus depicts worship; Micheangelo's David honors perfection; the Venus De Milo like an awkward moment with your big sis in a hospital gown; Da Vinci's Vitruvian man is a solution to an anatomical puzzle. All of 'em are in museums or books, and none are all that tittilating.

I've seen the bronze statue at the OP Arboretum. It's a disjointed, partially clothed female body that's devoid of a head depicted photographing 'her' exposed breasts. It's intended to be a social commentary about the anonymous 'sexting' world that many teen girls debase themselves. I liken this bronze conglomeration to a virtual thumb in the eye of the beholder. It maybe a vivisectionist's wet dream, but I find it unappealing.

I surmise that if the artist was a known Conservative, I am quite certain this vivisectionist's wet dream would fall into the dreaded 'war on women' melee, about which all the loon toons scream.

As for Mary Sanchez and those 'art appreciation classes, the people who've signed the petition to remove this 'art' from the Overland Park, Ks. arboretum are probably weary of the persistent 'in yer face' sexual assault on their senses, especially in the serene expanse of an arboretum - a facility where trees and shrubs are cultivated for exhibition.

Again, it's not a question of what; it's a question of where.

(click here to sign the removal petition, then scroll to the bottom for the link)