Chris - you left out my "if" clause
- "If" we're not as open to modern styles as we would like younger folk to be open to the older styles we may prefer... (paraphrasing because I'm not computer literate enough to cut & paste an exact quote...)
I'm not advocating that we abandon older styles, even Baroque which isn't my favorite; the greater variety the better. But that variety also, to my mind, includes modern styles, even if they aren't our personal favorites.
Doesn't mean we can't criticize individual renditions, however old or new the style, that are bad heraldry because they are too busy or poorly drawn or not faithful to the design they purport to represent. But that's criticism of individual renditions, not rejection of the whole artistic style. (As Joe notes, this one isn't heraldically deficient.)
And to promote an appreciation of heraldry by newer generations, seems to me we must be at least open to artistic styles they will be familiar and comfortable with in their own pre-heraldic experience. That is likely to be a more useful teaching tool than older styles that are essentially a foreign visual language - which even if they see it as beautiful, will to them be abstract art - like a foreign film without voiceover or subtitles. Better a simpler presentation in a visual language they can more easily understand. Once they absorb enough basic heraldic knowledge, they can then see, understand, and thus hopefully appreciate the older styles.
