Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson for February 16, 2022

Sorry, Calvin, your Mom is more into representational art that speaks to the masses.

Or you could get your snow art some sponsorship deals.

Your art needs to be liked if you want money, Calvin.

I’ll give you a 25 cent grant

This is exactly why artists LOVE to be funded by the government. Then they don’t have to worry about such petty concerns as individuals being willing to pay them for what they do.

His snow sculpture looks like it’s suffering enough for both of them.

Try commercialization instead. There’s much more money in it than from grants.

Yeah, miserably.

Every artist has to suffer for their art, though, right?

Calvin is not the type of artist that suffers for his art. He wants others to do the suffering.

Starve to death!!

Right there with ya Calvin. These lowbrows who don’t get art are so….. “deplorable”.

Snow is free, but I suppose coal and carrots cost money.

I’m not into suffering, if Art wants to suffer let him!

You mean the government would actually PAY Calvin to torment his parents with his snow goons??

GREAT!!

Yer a sell out, Calvin!

A grant from Mom? If the public isn’t supposed to like it, pour chocolate syrup on the snowman and go to the NEA.

Grant is on the $50 bill. Calvin will take that.

He should sell NFTs.

Calvin is going to make a great elected official: you don’t have to like what I’m doing, just give me money.

Seems the “Bohemian Lifestyle” is not what it used to be.

Now only if Calvin put that much effort into other areas of his life…

According to Dad, suffering builds character, or builds a character. I forget which.

Sorry Calvin, but your “bourgeois buffoon” is rather resembling you in that last panel.

Pretty sorry effort, considering the quality of his previous works.

His next work will be titled the Lumpy Proletariat…

An argument against public funding for the arts. Unless regular people like it well enough to pay for it, don’t produce it. Kind of like the glut of superhero movies lately (except for Spider-Man).

Some people do, which I never understand. I have seen the argument made almost verbatim that an artist should starve rather than cheapen their art by making it commercial. Bill Watterson was lucky in that he was still successful without merchandising.

That’s the trouble with trying to get fungible tokens for non-fungible tokens. I mean really, how long does a snowman retain it’s value.

Perhaps Dada would be more appreciative.

Basic guidelines for municipal art: A. no one can figure it out B. everyone hates it C. 10% kickback.

Yes. Yes, we do…

Love this!

Remember in the Renaissance when artists were funded by private patrons instead of taxpayers? We should go back to that system.

He can always send in the grant with the headline reading Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. That should get the grant peoples attention!

Last I checked, a Grant is $50. Big investment for something that’s going to melt.

I see Calvin is a follower of Andre Serrano.

Use snow from your neighbors yard – the one with all the dogs? Might make a statement.

Is this what they mean by “true art is offensive”?

That boy will make a great San Francisco liberal artist one day.

The public isn’t ready to suffer your art, Cal! :D

There’s no business like snow business.

He won’t get any grant money now because he is not oppressed enough. Unless his parents beat him

Great artists suffer for their art. Successful artists hire someone else to suffer for it.

um, I’m still not sure WHAT he needs a grant for

Art is whatever you can get away with. $500,000 for a statue of dog poop in San José, CA and $500,000 for a stack of shiny metal balls in Edmonton, AB.

I’ve met many hypocrite artists who scoffed at us working class stiffs for being wage slaves. Then demanded we pay cash for the art they were trying to sell on the sidewalk in the park.

Calvin, Calvin, Calvin (he says while shaking his head in a disapproving manner).

Clearly Hobbes knows nothing about art.

Too bad NFT’s weren’t around in Calvin’s time.

He’d be having a field day!!!

(IMHO, “NFT” should stand for “No Friggin’ Talent”!!)

How does Bill Watterson have such awesome humor? Too bad he stopped. :( I wonder why?…

I end up more like “Nick” on Family Ties. …. A couple admiring his art, “That’s wonderful, could you do one like that in colors to match our new couch ?”

I want art in our culture. But I question the track record of public funding efforts.

Calvin’s snow people are grotesque, hence the term “snow goons”.

A true “artist”.

Calvin pulled a big nate on that one lol