FRAGMENT + FORTIFY FRIDAY: Assignment Reminders + Norman Rockwell's Boy Reading Adventure Stories

UPCOMING DEADLINES: make sure to submit your work to receive credit!

>> First assignment STILL LIFE SELF PORTRAIT is due Sunday 4/12 by midnight
>> Second assignment PREHISTORIC STONE AGE ART QUESTIONS is due Tuesday 4/14 by midnight

---

---

---

Norman Percevel Rockwell (February 3, 1894 – November 8, 1978) was an American painter and illustrator. His works have a broad popular appeal in the United States for their reflection of American culture. Rockwell is most famous for the cover illustrations of everyday life he created for The Saturday Evening Post magazine over nearly five decades.
 
Among the best-known of Rockwell's works are the Willie Gillis series, Rosie the Riveter, The Problem We All Live With, Saying Grace, and the Four Freedoms series. He is also noted for his 64-year relationship with the Boy Scouts of America (BSA), during which he produced covers for their publication Boys' Life, calendars, and other illustrations.

Norman Rockwell was a prolific artist, producing more than 4,000 original works in his lifetime. Most of his works are either in public collections or have been destroyed in fire or other misfortunes.
 
Rockwell was also commissioned to illustrate more than 40 books, including Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn as well as painting the portraits for Presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon, as well as those of foreign figures, including Gamal Abdel Nasser and Jawaharlal Nehru. His portrait subjects included Judy Garland while one of his last portraits was of Colonel Sanders in 1973.

A custodianship of his original paintings and drawings was established with Rockwell's help near his home in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, and the Norman Rockwell Museum still is open today year-round. The museum's collection includes more than 700 original Rockwell paintings, drawings, and studies. The Rockwell Center for American Visual Studies at the Norman Rockwell Museum is a national research institute dedicated to American illustration art.
 
A brief biography can be found if you click on the link below which will bring you to the Norman Rockwell Museum website:
 
https://www.nrm.org/about/about-2/about-norman-rockwell/

---

We are surrounded by ordinary people who are giving themselves to serve others: bus drivers, delivery people, airline workers, grocery store clerks, post office workers, line cooks, police officers, food producers, social workers, janitorial staff, tradespeople, teachers, child care providers, farm workers, utility maintenance professionals, health care workers, servicemen and women, nurses, doctors. Their dedication deserves our profound thanks. It also proves that the great strength of America remains where it has always been: in ordinary Americans, setting their shoulders to accomplish the task before them.
 
- Heather Cox Richardson April 6, 2020

---

The five minute video you are going to watch today is about the work of art pictured below.
Today's post is about practicing viewing and interpreting artwork - notice the details what is going on = take your time analyzing and then ask yourself questions about the work. The Norman Rockwell painting Boy Reading Adventure Stories focuses on students and I particularly hope you note how it is possible to go on wonderful adventure through reading even while we are at home.
 
The video below explains why the image was chosen, key details, what you might wonder about. The narrators share fun facts about the painting and I invite you to share about an activity = READING!

Norman Rockwell’s Boy Reading Adventure Stories (1923)

---

There is so much to learn even as we stay close to home.

AS YOU WATCH THE VIDEO OR LOOK AT THE STILL IMAGE
NOTICE…

• The boy is with his patient dog, wearing his cozy slippers, reading a story about a heroic knight that springs right from the pages of his book.
• He has lots more books to look forward to and is settled in for a long reading session with a snack.
• Eating while reading in 1923 would likely be considered as indulgent so it is a clue that this boy is engrossed in his story. 
• As a boy, Rockwell would listen to the classic stories read after dinner by his father, and he tried to imagine what the characters and settings would look like by drawing them.

WONDER…

• Do you think Norman Rockwell’s experience being read to might have inspired this painting
• Have you ever imagined you were a character in a book?

FUN FACTS!

• The boy is reading about knights and castles and he is THE KNIGHT in his imagination. This is why books can be more fun than movies!
• The boy’s cowlick connects him to himself as a knight with a helmet and feather plume.
• Rockwell was only 29 years old when he painted this image.
• He loved being read to as a boy and we can imagine his own experience inspired him.

WHAT YOU CAN DO! WEEKEND INSPIRATION...

• Find or create the cozy place to read in your house - take a picture to share with us!
• Read about a hero - tell us who you are reading about!
• What did you learn from books and/or heroes in your life?
• Share a favorite book or story with with me via email and I will share your recommendation with everyone next Friday!
• Create a drawing from your imagination illustrating a hero from a favorite book.

​

Norman Rockwell’s Boy Reading Adventure Stories (1923)

---

You made it through the first week - GREAT JOB! Keep up the good work!

Please be sure to take care of yourselves and others during these new and unusual times.
Check in with yourself and your friends and exercise self care.

Have a most wonderful weekend and please remember if you need anything I am just an email away.

Missing you all.

Warm regards,

Nicole Webster Clark

---

Image Credits:
Boy Reading Adventure Story, 1923
Norman Rockwell (1894 - 1978)
Cover Tear Sheet
Cover illustration for The Saturday Evening Post, November 10, 1923.