Thanksgiving and Norman Rockwell

Freedom from Want - Norman Rockwell

I wonder how many are not familiar with this iconic image?  It just so happens a print of this beautifully touching slice of American life always hung in my grandmother's dining room, so naturally for me it's not only "known" but highly revered and fosters forever memories in my heart. 

 I am  humbled by the gratitude felt for the grandparents I was blessed to know and love.   

Last Saturday, a friend accompanied me to the North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh, NC, to take in AMERICAN CHRONICLES:  THE ART OF NORMAN ROCKWELL.  This exhibition presents 40 of Norman Rockwell's large-scale canvases and an archival set of Rockwell's 323 covers for the Saturday Evening Post, and runs through January 30, 2011. . .

It's a treasure trove of the familiar and it's extremely heartwarming. . .the visit could not have been timed better. . .right here before Thanksgiving when we are all busy creating our own forever "paintings" with family and friends.  Thank you B.V. for going along with me down memory lane and for being such excellent company!

A new friend of mine, from here in Winston, said it best the other evening.  I'm paraphrasing now, but he remarked that Thanksgiving is his favorite holiday. . .and he said it with such feeling.  This friend, who I will mention has a big, giving heart, went on to explain that it's all about family and friends instead of perhaps the commercialism we have attached to the Christmas holiday season.  I couldn't agree more and was struck by how nice it was to hear the thoughtfulness he expressed. 

 You cannot discount the value and company of friends around the holidays who, in their comfortable, familiar quietude, accept you as just being there to share a glass of wine, a cup of coffee and/or occasional intimate thought.   

"I paint life as I would like it to be," said Norman Rockwell.

That's my Thanksgiving wish from me to you. . .