Happy Birthday, Mr. Rockwell!

Is an illustrator a "real" artist? Your call.... I think we must have Norman Rockwell today, because it is his birthday (1894). This is "After the Prom," the cover of the May 25, 1957 Saturday Evening Post magazine. It's really a mini-masterpiece of composition. See how he creates a circle of brilliant white in the middle--dress, dinner jacket, shirt and cap of the counter man in this truck stop. And what a lively jumble of triangles--bent knees and elbows, six in all are visible! What else do you see? The final touch, for me, is the angled left arm of the counter man, which nails the right edge of the painting for us and pulls in the boy. At the very bottom we see the dirty floor and old cigarette butts. That's real life. But maybe, for just a moment, we can stop and celebrate innocence?