Little Red Riding Hood

     For this week's blog post, we're supposed to pick a piece of artwork and elaborate on it. Create a theory, unpack that theory, and answer: How do you connect to this work? How does it connect to humanity? Well, the piece of artwork I chose was from the Museam Of Modern Art, and is titled Friend, by Kiki Smith. Obviously based on the fairytale Little Red Riding Hood, in this sketch, the artist curiously portrays the wolf sitting almost dog like next to little red, with the basic assumption going along with it that dogs are friends with their owners. I think that in this painting, the artist is trying to comment on how violent today's world really is, and trying to say- "what if it were like this instead?"
     In the traditional telling of Little Red Riding Hood, little red is going to meet her grandmother. On her way through the woods, she encounters a wolf who wants to eat her. Unsuccessful at first, the wolf beats her to her grandmother's house, ties her grandmother up, and poses as the grandmother in her bed. When red gets there, he eats her and her grandmother, but the two are saved at last by a brave woodsman who kills the wolf and lets red and her grandma out. Well, seeing as this is a childrens story, it's not hard to say that today's world view is pretty gruesome. So it's not a ridiculous idea to try and get people to think- what if the wolf wasn't evil? What if he didn't try to eat little red? What if, instead of scaring our children, we told them a nice little story where red meets a wolf in the woods and the two of them become friends? Is that really so hard to believe?
     I connect to this painting because, being older now, I can see how it connects to real life. The wolf possibly represented a stranger trying to lure a little girl into his van, or a dealer offering a 5th grader a joint. But today's culture is too harsh if we try to introduce tales like this- problems like this- into the minds of small children! Stranger danger is good, but not all strangers are evil. And while I agree that children should be aware of the dangers of the world, I wholly appreciate this painting for what it could be- a reminder that, even in this dangerous world, the possibility of a happy ending should at least be considered.