Saturday, March 08, 2008

Norman Rockwell


Norman Rockwell -- 01 March 2008

I cannot pinpoint the date when my love affair with Norman Rockwell began. It started many, many years ago. I think it was my sister Sunshine that introduced him to me formally. She had a small book called Norman Rockwell -- 332 Magazine Covers (ISBN 1-55859-224-5). Apparently, I had met him before without realizing it. We had a Boy Scout manual with his illustrations when we were young. It was one of those OLD books around the house which belonged to my dad (or maybe to his dad). I didn't pay much attention to it though I was impressed at the illustrations. I guess I was at the 'Boys, who needs 'em' stage when I saw the manual because I failed to see its value I did manage to keep the other book despite the chaos, madness, and constant movement of things around the house.




My favorite Norman Rockwell piece is Sunset (aka Little Spooners or Puppy Love) which was the Saturday Evening Post cover for 24 April 1926. It is an image full of love and deep emotions. It depicts love in such a beautiful way. I love the way the little boy has his arm around the young girl's waist and how the girl gently rests her head on the shoulder of the boy. I love the color of the sunset and simplicity of the two flowers in the girl's hand. I love it that the dog waits patiently nearby watching over the fishing rod, which has been cast aside by the young boy, in favor of the girl.

It is an image that never fails to give me a warm, fuzzy feeling inside. One that always makes me smile.

During my days at Treasury Operations, ZAP, the Operations Group Head was very much into cross stitching. I was duly impressed with the final cross stitched projects but I have never been the 'flowers' type of girl. One day, I chanced upon one with Norman Rockwell's 'Sunset.' I immediately picked it up. I figured if I ever embarked on a cross stitch project, it would have to be something which I really, really wanted to. As luck would have it, the pattern sat in my drawer for a very long time. There were so many other things to do and sitting around stitching crosses consumed a lot of time.

In 1994, Dad (that's my husband) went off to the U.S. for 3 months of training. It was the first time we were apart since we got married in 1992. Our first-born, let me call him GI was only six months old at the time. I got terribly lonely. There was nobody to talk to and nothing much to do at night when the little one had fallen asleep. That is when I remembered Norman Rockwell.

I purchased all the materials needed to complete the Norman Rockwell project and started sewing. The top portion of the project was the sunset, which required a single color of thread. It was great to see the 'sun' come alive. The orange thread immediately gave life to the piece of cloth. I worked on the project at night when GI was asleep and on weekends when there was time. It was amazing how little X's could turn into a boy and a girl. It was wonderful that single yellow X's in the sea of blue X's made little polka-dot designs on a young lady's dress. The project was moving along steadily and magnificently. It was 3/4 of the way complete when Dad came home.

Once again, Norman Rockwell lost center stage.

The project got folded up and set aside. I think it took me twice or thrice the amount of time to finish the last 1/4 of the project. I forced myself to finish it because it would have been such a shame not to be able to display such a work of art. When I sewed the last lazy daisy to complete the flowers, I was so happy. I had also created my own Norman Rockwell masterpiece.

My MIL had the work framed and it hung proudly on my parents' living room wall at Cebu Avenue. Eventually, my Norman Rockwell was accompanied by photos of GI (who is my parents' first grandchild), his siblings, and their cousins. Recently, with the arrival of the tenth grandchild, Norman Rockwell lost his place in my parents' wall, and has thus come back 'home' to me. Ü

I have placed my framed Norman Rockwell cross stitch in my room at Cebu Avenue since we don't really have much wall space at Makati. We visit there almost every weekend anyway. Although in order to see my Rockwell more often, I decided take a picture of it and use that as the photo in my Multiply and Flickr accounts.

As I said, that picture makes me smile. I hope when you see it, it'll make you smile, too.

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Norman Rockwell (February 3, 1894 – November 8, 1978) was an American painter and illustrator. He is most famous for his Saturday Evening Post covers. He contributed to the covers of the Post for over four decades. He is also known for his illustrations for the Boy Scouts and his WWII Four Freedoms paintings (inspired by Franklin D. Roosevelt's speech): Freedom from Want, Freedom of Speech, Freedom to Worship, and Freedom from Fear.

2 comments:

angels4kids said...

I let Father read this blog post and do you know what he said? He said that his father, my Lolo Daddy, loved Norman Rockwell. Apparently, Lolo Daddy liked Norman Rockwell so much that he had a subscription to the Saturday Evening Post all the way from the U.S. when they were young.

I guess that confirms that the Boy Scout manual did belong to him. Too bad I can't find that book anymore.

Anonymous said...

It was passed down to me, though I had to have it covered with plastic before the cover fell apart.

It *should* be in my room.

Z