Christmas

As a child I never knew how he could do it. To create images that you simply could not walk past without being held to a steady gaze of wonderment. Entranced. This image struck me earlier tonight with it being Christmas Eve and all of course. A wave of nostalgia swept over me as I thought about the Holiday, my youth and those experiences.

For instance, the way he made their faces "pop" with such a genuine expression of euphoria, it still thrills me. It reminded me of the sheer ecstasy I had felt as I stumbled dreary-eyed into the living room on Christmas morning to gaze at all the gifts under the tree. Capture any emotion with precision and without over powering it, now that's skill. No matter what the subject of the illustration, I simply knew back then I was peering into something very organic, wholesome and real.

Aside from Bob Ross (a close second), Norman Percy Rockwell is indeed my favorite artist. Hey, the dude was a New Yorker! j/k He could have hailed from Juneau, AK and he would still be my top pick. Speaking of Juneau, it feels like it out there. I stood briefly outside to just look around at the evergreens and watch my hot breath in the cold air. It brought me back.

Looking at the family peering through the window at what could be (if memory serves me) a new car in the driveway is so classic. Even though it is no where in sight you can see it there in all it's stoic glory with a light dusting of snow on the roof, hood and trunk leaving a single fresh set of tire tracks in the soft white. At my age, and with certain members of the family gone, a scene such as this will not be in store this Christmas. But the warm memories of those loved ones passed on and what we did share still fills my heart with genuine warmth. Someday not to far off I will create that same wonderment for my family as my family and Mr. Rockwell had created for me all those years.

Now that's a feeling of Christmas if I ever knew one.

SYS