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Monday, January 2, 2017

Thanks Norman.



"Home for the holidays,
I believe I've missed each and every face,
Come on and play my music,
Let's turn on the love light in the place."

This past holiday season came up fast and went by as quickly. 

Where did it go? 

I have commented that I believe one of the reasons it seemed to come and go faster than previous years is what was happening during the normal holiday preparation time. Starting with October, we saw a "miracle on the horizon;" the Chicago Cubs were actually a favored team to make the World Series. The process of doing so, with all of the close games and long play-off series, took nearly a month to complete. 

So that took us to the beginning of November. As America took a deep breath in preparation for the election less than a week later, once that was over, then Turkey and Santa soon followed. Now, it's a new year and here we are!

During the past few days, my family has been out of town. Whereas that would be a sign for a big party and time to go wild, the craziest thing I did was go to 3 movies, the zoo and two photo shoots. I went nuts as you can tell.

This time off also gave me opportunity to do some exploring in our storage area and it proved to be worth it. I found old photos, sports memorabilia, Norman Rockwell prints and much more. For most readers of "Snap.Shot," the Rockwell prints would be a big yawn---but for me, it's a part of my past. I loved Norman Rockwell when I was much younger, and still yearn for the scenes he brought to America all those years ago. 

Many years ago I had a meeting at Curtis Publishing Company in Indianapolis. I had no idea they had been the publishers of the Saturday Evening Post and better yet, no idea they had real Norman Rockwell paintings in their headquarters! What I also learned was over the years they found many of his paintings behind filing cabinets, in closets, and hidden away gathering dust. If they only had a garage sale I would now be loaded.

What I love about his work was how he captured the American spirit; his work gave us a snapshot of love, the realities of war, and far away adventures that most people would likely never experience. Nowadays we let iPhones, Nikons and iPads capture it all---it's great, but something is lost. Of course I love photography, but there's something about the talent of artists who can take what they see and re-create it with a brush. 

The photo above was inspired by a Norman Rockwell painting. This past Thanksgiving I asked everyone at the table to do a mannequin pose; they did, and the results were magic. Although shooting a camera is much faster than the time it took to create one of his paintings/illustrations, it was Rockwell's inspiration and incredible creative mind that I hope I can always keep in my head when I am taking photos. He was truly one of a kind.

Thanks for stopping by.






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