A Rockwellesque Thanksgiving

It's Thanksgiving in the states again and the start of another holiday season. I think every one has noticed and commented on the Irony that is associated with the holidays. We start with a celebratory feast to give thanks to our God for His bounteous blessings, and then several hours later we trample each other to save $20 on a new, unneeded, electronic or toy. It's sad. It's pathetic. It's the world we live in. The best we can do to change things is to change our own attitude and approach to the holidays, the sale's, and to the reason and meaning behind each gift we give and receive.

This year I would like to highlight one of my favorite 20th century painters, Norman Rockwell. Rockwell is best know for his cover illustrations of the Saturday Evening Post and the majority of his work was done for them. He did, however, paint for other magazines, advertisements, and for personal expression. 

He was highly criticized by fellow artists  both in his time and now.The critics state that his depictions of life are too idealized and cheerful and that if he were a "true" artist he would depict things with angst and deep emotion. 

I personally do not agree with this critic or description of a "true" artist and I know there are many others who share my feelings that Rockwell portrayed a world that we would all enjoy living in. In his lifetime he created over 4,000 paintings which is an outstanding amount when compared to other great painters in his time and throughout history.

Even today, his famous Saturday Evening Post illustrations are used as iconic models for contemporary artists.

Rockwell's most famous Thanksgiving painting is entitled Freedom from Want. Here we see a loving family gathered around a dining table. They all have giant smiles and seem to be sharing the joy that comes from being together and having a bountiful feast. The grandmother is holding what looks like a 20 pound bird and the grandfather is standing beside her, ready to carve. The table is laid with the finest china, crystal, and silver in honor of the occasion. 

This painting has been the inspiration for many artistic interpretations over the years. Here are a few of my favorites.

This Disney version has a portrait on the wall. Is it Walt Disney or Norman Rockwell? I'm not sure, but it does bring a smile to my face.

Again, another lighthearted rendition of this painting. This time the family members have been replaced by characters from the television show Sesame Street and the giant turkey has been replaced with a large pile of cookies.

In this rendition the family is a flock of turkeys feasting on a large platter of worms.

From zombies to politics, we can see how vast the range of parodies are with this one painting as inspiration.

But what about Rockwell's other works? With over 4,000 paintings surely he made more with a Thanksgiving theme. Yes! And when we study the other's closely while keeping your mind on facts, we can see that Rockwell's paintings aren't all idealistic.

Here we have a Pilgrim placed in the stocks (pillory?). His crime has been written and posted in front of him as being a glutton. What is gluttony? It is the overindulgence and consumption of food, wine, and wealth and was despised by the pilgrims. 

Quick history fact, the pilgrims left their countries in search of religious freedom because they were themselves religious zealots. They hated excess and extravagance and were hateful towards those who did not share their beliefs. Once in America the different settlements of Pilgrims hated each other and each had their own set of ideals and laws. 

So, again with the holiday irony, we celebrate the successful harvest of the Pilgrims by eating ridiculous amounts of food. Was Rockwell implying that we should be the pilgrim in the stocks? Possibly...

This humorous painting depicts a young city boy being chased by the large turkey we was trying to kill and his country cousins laughing at him in the background. I love how the monochromatic red highlights the turkey's head and waddle. Red is traditionally used in paintings to express anger and violent emotions. That must be one angry turkey!

Here, Rockwell has painted a young boy and girl after the feast. They are pulling on the wishbone from the turkey. What makes this meaningful? The pulling and breaking of the wishbone in this way is a tradition that goes back to... I don't know when. Basically, each person makes a wish in their mind and then they both pull on the wishbone. After it breaks, whomever is left with the larger piece will have their wish granted in some way. Rockwell was pointing out that the Thanksgiving feast is a feast given in thanks to God for their blessings. And yet, after the feast is over we have a tradition of wishing for more.

Not all of Rockwell's paintings had deeper meanings. This one, for example, is a lovely picture of a woman proudly presenting a roasted turkey. If there is a deeper meaning or significance I can't find it. 

Norman Rockwell was a wonderful artist and while his work has received a lot of criticism, when looked at closely each painting is filled with emotion. 

Thank you for letting me share my love of art with you again.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Carification - For the Love of Detail

Hello again! I have recently learned that I am obsessed with art. Yeah, you would have thought that in my 33 years of constantly drawing, painting, and creating I would have figured that out. I even minored in art in college, but it has only been the past couple of months when my life was turned on it's head that I realized how important art is to me. After my religion and my family, art is my only real passion. I just can't get enough of it.
It's gotten to the point that I see past the obvious and focus just on the small details. Case in point, JM is 2 years old. He is love with what he calls "beep-beeps" which are cars, trucks, planes, etc. I, being a girly-girl, never paid that much attention to cars. In the past 8 months JM has pointed out every shirt, toy, picture, tv show, and movie that has a car in it. Trust me, they are everywhere. His favorite movies are Disney Pixar's Cars and Cars 2. Once he receives Cars 3 on blu-ray that will also become a favorite. He watches them once, sometimes twice, a day. Everything in his life seems to revolve around Lightning McQueen.

I don't know if it's mother's love, the brilliant work of Pixar, or a combination of both but I have yet to "tire" of Cars. I feel like it should drive me crazy, but it hasn't happened yet. In fact, I have fallen in love with the amount of detail that was put into creating the world of cars. As I was looking up some of the fabulous details to share with you I learned even more.
When it comes to creating a believable world that mimics the real world, it takes a lot of focus and attention to details. They couldn't just place them in a cartoon world exactly like ours, it wouldn't make any sense. Believablity is all in the tiny, tiny details. As the creators went through each detail to make it more automotive in style and shape, they called it "Carification." Let me show you just a few of gems that are found in Cars 2.
The most noticeable elements are the buildings they carified. The details for Notre Dame in Paris is exquisite when you realize that it only used as a background building for a couple of minutes.

Radiator covers at the bell towers, pipes for the flying buttresses, and antennas, gauges and headlights as the sculptural decorations! Applause! Applause!
Check out the little details in how the buildings were constructed in the Japanese pagodas.

Let's take a moment to look at the casino. Again, the structural details are automobile related.

Statues, both inside and out, have been carified which just makes me wonder about the possible backstories associated with them.

One of my absolute favorite things in this movie are the background frescoes in the casino. The translation of classical art into modern pop culture with such attention to detail and respect to the original style shows how dedicated the creators were to making a quality movie that could be appreciated by young and old alike.

True, I am just pointing out some of the amazing details without offering much in the way of commentary or insight. However, sometimes all we need is someone to point out the details in order for us to truly appreciate them.
I will end with a few of the "Easter eggs" that can be found in Cars 2.
Here, at "Ye Left Turn Inn," we have a carified tapistry of Merida and her parents from the movie, Brave.

In the wholesale market there is a poster in one of the stalls giving nod to "The Incredibles."

In the background of this scene we can see a movie poster for "A Bugs Life." I love the tongue-in-cheek with this one.

And, of course, it wouldn't be a true Pixar movie without some type of nod to the original, "Toy Story."

16 Weeks until Baby Girl!

I am 23 ½ weeks pregnant! Yea! We are so excited to be having a little girl. Compared to my last pregnancy this one has been a breeze (apart from the emotional imbalance). When I was 24 weeks along with JM I had severe muscle spasms in my back that, unfortunately, could not be relieved. They couldn’t give me any shots because it might affect the baby. They wouldn’t give me any pain pills because it would affect the baby. I was basically bed ridden because I was in so much pain. When the pain finally started to ease I found out I had preeclampsia and was placed on official bed-rest until the baby was born 4 weeks later. He was 6 weeks early and because I had been unable to do anything for the past 2 months we were far from ready for him at home. My wonderful family set up the crib, changing table, made sure we had preemie clothes and diapers for him. I still felt very unprepared.

This time, even though this have been going so much smoother (I’m comparing trimester to trimester, not overall because I’m not done yet) I still worry that something might happen again and I really want to be more prepared this time. This morning I went through all of the baby clothes I saved from JM and all of the clothes we have been given for baby girl. Without me having added anything that I have already purchased (not much) we already have twice the amount of clothing for baby girl than we did for JM. We were given a lot for JM, and I still had to buy about 1/3 of the clothes we needed.

Boys clothes preemie through 3-6 months. I bought 1/3 of these.

Girls clothes preemie through 3-6 months. All have been given to us.

I have an entire diaper box full of clothes that were given to us for baby girl that I don’t want because of style or stains. My husband says we should keep it just in case, but I think that even if she never wore the same outfit twice she still wouldn’t be able to wear all of the clothes we have for her. And she’s not even here yet! I also have a friend giving me a baby shower so I know we will receive even more clothes. What am I going to do? I usually win when I want to downsize the amount of stuff we have, but sometimes MD is sneaky and will hide a box of things he thinks I shouldn’t give away. He’s done it before when I’ve tried to get rid of old clothes…

Please understand what I need.

Many times people only put happy, positive things online and the deeper issues are overlooked. Maybe they don’t want everyone to know their personal struggles or maybe they don’t want to contribute to the negativity that is so easily brought out of people when they are online. I know I don’t like to share my personal issues with people. But sometimes it is important for us to share the darker side of life. Even when we are religious, whatever the religion is, we have dark times and others have a right to know that life isn’t peachy-keen all of the time.

For me, I am needing to share my struggles right now. Those of you who know me, know that I am not shy about sharing my medical issues. I want to share with others so if they are struggling with similar issues, they can know that they are not alone. I feel very strongly about this and I will continue to share. Right now, however, I need to share what is going on not for others to feel better about their lives, but because I am in great need of love, compassion, and understanding from others.

I have a condition called dysthymia which is a chemical imbalance that causes depression, social anxiety, and OCD. Most of the time I am able to keep it under control, but with this pregnancy my emotions have become very unstable. I get trapped in a vicious cycle that only cause pain and hurt to me and subsequently my family. Here’s how it usually happens. I see someone and I want to say, “hi,” talk about their families and lives, learn how they are doing, etc. I really want to connect with people. But as soon as I recognize someone I mentally freeze, become extremely anxious, and cannot think. It doesn’t matter if I’ve known you for 2 years or 20 years, friend, cousin, in-law… it doesn’t matter. In fact, the longer I’ve known you the worse the freeze and anxiety can be. If I seem distant and distracted, it isn’t because I don’t care, I am just not able to connect with you the way I desperately want to. I will then leave the situation and become extremely depressed because I feel incapable of making friends. I often feel unloved, unappreciated, or even ignored because I don’t know how to connect with others the way they expect me to. This depression eats away at me and the next time I run into someone the anxieties are compounded and everything gets worse.

Normally, I am able to break myself out of this cycle, or even ignore the anxiety when I see someone randomly, but since I have been pregnant this time I have not been able to do that. I do the best I can to try and reach out to others, but most of the time the efforts that have been monumental for me are almost insignificant to others. They go unacknowledged or ignored by others. I know that it isn’t meant to hurt me, but it does. Me sending out invitations to a gift exchange, sending Christmas cards, invitations to dinner, they are me desperately trying to continue love and friendship.

I need love, friendship, and acceptance just as much as anyone else. I don’t want you to suddenly start inviting me to see a movie, go out to eat, or “hang out.” I am not able to do those things right now because the anxiety would be too much for me to handle. I just need you to understand that I need your compassion now more than ever. I am lonely, feel unloved most of the time, and being unable to control these extreme emotions scares me. If all you can do is pray for me, please do!