#The100DayProject, Fig. 9

(A clever friend of mine saw this & quipped, “Arrive late, get the cold shoulder.” Get it?)

This drawing didn’t start out as a parody of Norman Rockwell’s painting “Freedom from Want.”  But once I’d sketched out a  draft of a kindly older woman holding a platter filled with Leg of Human, I realized that all drawings of kindly older women holding a platter of meat (or for that matter, any main dish) are going to evoke Rockwell’s classic work, whether the artist meant to or not.  So I figured I’d just go ahead and take my drawing in that direction.

I’ve never wholly accepted the school of thought which dismisses Rockwell’s work as mere kitsch, or describes him, sniffily, as “merely an illustrator” (that last assessment particularly rankles, as you might imagine); if nothing else, I’ve always thought — at least nominally — that he was a skillful painter.

But let me tell you: nothing has made me appreciate Rockwell’s craftsmanship like trying to even semi-accurately draw a foreshortened glass dish full of celery stalks.

Do you know how difficult that is?

IT IS VERY DIFFICULT.