Berkshires The Norman Rockwell Museum

     
   

Being an illustrator, I had to stop down in Stockbridge, M.A. to check out the Norman Rockwell home and museum. His body of work was pretty outstanding and I loved meeting people Rockwell painted in the museum (you can't beat first hand knowledge). The whole town tells stories of him and it was interesting to see his work then tour the little town he worked from. I'm envious of his studio which is located right off the stream behind his home. The museum also had a show on the history of the graphic novel with work from: Will Eisner, Terry Moore, Art Spiegelman, R. Crumb, and Frank Miller- talk about eclectic.

The experience was a history lesson that enlightened me about aspects of America I never knew, the little things. One of my favorite pieces was the personal correspondence between Rockwell and the many presidents he painted. They tell a good deal about the different personalities of the White House. Rockwell was a perfectionist so there are many different versions of well known paintings he did. I really enjoy seeing this part of the process because you learn a great deal from viewing peoples mistakes and how they choose to correct them.