Norman (Rockwell) #AtoZ Challenge

Today, we return to Vermont, to the small town of Arlington, in southwest Vermont, where we visit a store.

Looks delicious, doesn't it?

Let's enter this business, which is called The Sugar Shack.  As the name suggests, they sell maple syrup (and you can sample it before you buy, too.)  They also serve delicious creemies, which is the Vermont version of soft swirl ice cream. 

But there is one more thing to see at The Sugar Shack before you leave.  Go into the back and you will find an amazing museum.  Even better, it's free!

The museum pays tribute to a famous artist of the 20th century, Norman Rockwell.

Norman Rockwell was a noted commercial illustrator who did work for various publications, including (in his teens) Boy's Life (Boy Scouts) .  He later did work for the Saturday Evening Post magazine for some 47 years and did over 300 magazine covers for them.  He later did work for Look Magazine, which no longer exists but I remember from my childhood. 

He is, perhaps, best known for his depictions of small town life.  

Rockwell was born in 1894, in New York City.  He lived for a while in New Rochelle, a suburb of New York City.

Norman Rockwell moved to Arlington, Vermont in 1939 and lived there until 1953.  During this time, he used some 200 residents of the area as models for his artwork.  The Sugar Shack exhibition, which I did not photograph, concentrates on his artwork while he lived in Arlington, which included some of his most famous works.

What was the most fascinating parts of the exhibit (which I saw last September) for me were the stories told by the various residents who had been used as models. These included his next door neighbors, and he used both children and adults in his works.  Here are the stories of some of these models, and this newspaper article also shows a number of his works.

Rockwell worked from photographs, which he did not take himself, to create his covers.

Norman Rockwell's home in Arlington, Vermont

After Arlington, Rockwell moved to Stockbridge, Massachusetts and there is a museum devoted to him there.

Norman Rockwell was a part of my youth, and the Saturday Evening Post still publishes and still features some of Rockwell's works.  

The models still living are in their 80's and 90's now.  When they go, another link to our past will be gone.

"N" day in the Blogging from A to Z Challenge.  My theme: "From Florida to Vermont With Stops In Between".

Monday, I resume with the letter "O".  Tomorrow I will have my weekly Music Moves Me post.