Hello

[Nate_S]

Woops, I've already posted 10 times before I noticed this section of the forums. Anyways, my name is Nate Struttmann and I currently reside in Sarasota Florida where I am an Illustration major at the Ringling Academy of Art and Design.

I view Illustration as realisms modern American lineage. When Pollock burst onto the scene the philosophically complacent bulk of the supposed artistic intellectuals of American Society proved to value an 'artist's' primal emotional code over a competent assertion of ones aesthetic and humanistic values. Meanwhile that which demonstrated and idolized the values America should hold dare was refined under the scrutiny of our commercial economy. Pin-Ups raised the morale of our troops, Rockwell celebrated the marvels of our material world as genuine human experiences, and Maxfield Parrish promoted the mainstream appeal of Romantic realism with mathematically comprised and visually stunning compositions. As such Illustrators have a noble heritage and are a vital part of our Nations morale and commercial vitality. I am really excited about getting out in the field once I graduate and honoring this noble heritage by campaigning objective aesthetics to our commercial economy.

[Nate_S]

This is a paper I wrote on Norman Rockwell for a History of Illustration course, it pretty much sums up how I apply my objective reasoning to the nature of Illustration. I struggled with it at first, but the Romantic Manifesto helped me out alot, even if it was primary about the literary arts.

When I envision the hands that built America, that represent the basic philosophical strife of this nation, they aren?t contrived of sexism, slavery, or any other lingering immoral treason on our inherent humanistic freedoms that seem to tarnish our Nations image. I think of these hands as indicative of that which have been given the will to gradually rise from the residual filth of long withstanding, internationally cultured and socially instituted assaults on the individual rights of man that existed long before America?s conception. As such these hands are both forged and fueled by possibilities. In Norman Rockwell's world the fruits of these possibilities have been realized, alluding to the not always apparent fundamental good that makes their reality that much more believable to the delight and satisfaction of all those that willfully partake in our nations freedoms. Rather then falsely contrived illusions I see them as more aptly very real possibilities stemming from our American heritage and the freedoms it embodies.

Based upon the idiotic modern pretences of cultural pluralism there is no cultural right or wrong and we are often taught to deny logic and reason in order to avoid the offence of an International audience whose beliefs might subscribe to notions contradictory to our vision of human rights and freedoms. The mechanics of this intellectual fallacy has belittled the rational philosophical strife of our forefathers to a subjective relic of what 'may be' right rather then morally essential to living. However, as long as we are a capitalistic democracy we must adhere to the freedoms our nation?s founders prescribed in order to live by the standards they have raised. With this withstanding we will always be America and we will always embody the moral philosophical good that the mere practice of our political system entails even if we refuse to recognize it. However, notions such as cultural pluralism, which cripple our moral resolve, ripen our collective fears and insecurities for the malignant social parasites of this world to feed off of. Because of this more then ever we need reminders of what might be, or could have been, or was, in order to endure the price of our freedoms. Because of this Rockwell's work is more relevant then ever as an embodiment of these timeless reminders. When I opened up a Rockwell anthology and began to turn the pages my freedom was as it should be: warming. Not because I naively prescribed to the reality of his pictorials but because I believed in their possibility. I believed in the possibility of a world where children were allowed to be children, where freedoms were dear, where we celebrated the marvels of our material world as genuine human experiences. Honestly, I have yet to experience this world in its entirety first hand but because Norman Rockwell made me feel it in these instances, through his eyes, it has become that much more attainable, that much more a possibility.

As such the context of our day to day reality might disprove the relevancy of his works as simple sentimental dribble. Yet, however ideological they might appear, they exude a certain emotional sincerity that is relative to anyone who wishes well his fellow man. As such Rockwell?s primary body of work still presents an immensely compelling view of American Life and the joys that economic fertility and social freedoms produce. His works are a time capsule full of the hopes, dreams, idolizations, and aspirations of an era whose heart and soul is forever relative to our American lives. Justly his impeccable technical resolve and narrative mastery has withstood the criticisms and cynical rhetoric of those who refuse to appreciate the beautiful for simply being beautiful. In doing so his works have given my generation and future generations an intoxicating glimpse of American spirit done right and the prestige of an American illustrative Legacy in which we might hope to aspire. More importantly he has put a face (or many faces) on the possible, reaffirming the virtues of the past in order to validate the noble sense of possibility that our nations present encompasses. My appreciation for Norman Rockwell is primarily a philosophical one, and because of this it might be skewed as an overtly American bias. However like Rockwell's work my philosophical outlook on this world embodies fundamental principles that transcend specific cultures and societies and appeal to anyone who is of an individual conscious and a noble mind.