Observer and observed, the essence of Art.
Art for the Day
- Donald R. McClarey
Donald R. McClarey
Cradle Catholic. Active in the pro-life movement since 1973. Father of three, one in Heaven, and happily married for 43 years. Small town lawyer and amateur historian. Former president of the board of directors of the local crisis pregnancy center for a decade.
Rockwell was often dismissed as too saccharine and sentimental to considered serious artist. But this painting clearly indicates he knew exactly what his reputation was and that he was fine with it.
Looks to me like the relative generations of the Church.
Mom looking at the chaos, and longing to be part of it, while she entrusts little miss to grandma, who shows her the good stuff.
In a similar way, perhaps sanity will return to the Church after we are done staring at modernism and longing to be part of it.
Art and architecture critics may be the most thoroughgoing humbugs in the occidental world.
Norman Rockwell could tell a whole story with his paintings. One brief snapshot in time, and the story of three generations is unfolded before our eyes. Our imagination is drawn into the story.
The viewer is invited into the picture and into the story. Every detail, the clothing, the child’s doll, the juxtaposition of the artwork on the walls, the way each person is drawn into the artwork, it all tells us the history of the family and the history of our culture.
Notice who has influence over the youngest generation.
The painting is dated 1966.
The little girl with her baby doll would now be the age of the grandmother.. I imagine her today, in 2026, with her own daughter and granddaughter at the same art gallery.
Who would be looking at which paintings?
The Scream (missing) is the person seeing himself.
Norman Rockwell was the painter for The Boy Scouts of America. Rockwell painted 24/7. Rockwell was very good.
You could not give me a Picasso. Any damned fool could paint that.