Living in the United States of America is a type of lifestyle that every single citizen enjoys having because of the sacrifices taken from its people to preserve the future of their families’ well beings. Whenever a person from outside the U.S. sees this country, they see freedom of speech, they se the amount of rights secured for a citizen, and most importanly they see a great oppurtunity to better their lives and create a better tomrrow for themselves as well as their beloved friends and families.
We should never forget those that helped us fight for our liberty to do what we wanted and love to do as united people. We want to be safe believing in a faith with faulters, or have nice things that wasn’t possible before. We want to be a able to stand up for ourselves to give a voice to those that can’t. We want to be able to stand ground against those that threaten our happiness.
Born in New York City in 1894, Norman Rockwell always wanted to be an artist. At age 14, Rockwell enrolled in art classes at The New York School of Art (formerly The Chase School of Art). Two years later, in 1910, he left high school to study art at The National Academy of Design. He soon transferred to The Art Students League, where he studied with Thomas Fogarty and George Bridgman. Fogarty’s instruction in illustration prepared Rockwell for his first commercial commissions. From Bridgman, Rockwell learned the technical skills on which he relied throughout his long career.
Freedom of Speech depicts a scene of a local town meeting in which Jim Edgerton, the lone dissenter to the town selectmen's announced plans to build a new school, was accorded the floor as a matter of protocol. The old school had burned down. Once he envisioned this scene to depict freedom of speech, Rockwell decided to use his Vermont neighbors as models for a Four Freedoms series.
The significance of this painting is to highlight how important freedom of speech is as well as expression from oneself especially towards the world.
The painting shows the profiles of eight heads in a modest space. The various figures represent people of different faiths in a moment of prayer. Particularly, three figures on the bottom row (right to left): a man with his head covered carrying a religious book who is Jewish, an older woman who is Protestant, and a younger woman with a well-lit face holding rosary beads who is Catholic.
Having a comfortable area of worship can be important for one who has a faith that they believe in and should be respected by those with a different God and some who don’t follow religion.
The painting shows an aproned matriarch presenting a roasted turkey to a family of several generations, in Rockwell's idealistic presentation of family values. The patriarch looks on with fondness and approval from the head of the table, which is the central element of the painting. In mid-June Rockwell sketched in charcoal the Four Freedoms and sought commission from the Office of War Information (OWI).
What Americans and any other group of people in a country would want is have a means undering economic methods that will help secure a peaceful future for it’s people, for it’s country.
The painting shows children resting safely in their beds, oblivious to the perils of this world, as their parents look on. Their mother tucks them in while their father holds a newspaper describing the horrors of the ongoing conflict. However, his attention is fully on his children and not on the alarming headlines.
The last freedom is the freedom of fear. Now don’t let it fool you, the feedom of fear translates toward where there is a world-wide decrease of malicious intentionsand harm toward their fellow countries surrounding them as well as around the globe. Less aggressive towards one’s neighbour compensates for beter negotiations and solutions.