Crimson Harvest- by Greg Newbold
My painting "Crimson Harvest" was featured prominently in an Orange County Register article about The American Nostalgia show. This show, subtitled "Contemporary Artists and Illustrators Reinterpret the Traditional Themes of Norman Rockwell: is on display at the Muckenthaler Cultural Center in Fullerton California. I was pleased to see that of the 50 or so works, mine was chosen to be representative of the show, but was a bit miffed at the reviewer's reaction to the exhibit which came across as overly critical and seemed to miss the point. Reviewer Richard Chang's main criticism seemed to be that only one artist questioned the validity of Rockwell's point of view and that the rest of the show "appears to praise [Rockwell] to the heavens". Well, in my eyes, the whole point of the show was to pay tribute to the artist whose idealistic point of view is so ingrained in our culture that you cannot escape it. I think he missed the boat on that review. If the show was intended to be "anti" Rockwell, none of the artists chosen would have been invited and the the title of the exhibit would have been something other than "American Nostalgia". If you happen to be in the Southern California area between now and the end of the show's run on September 25th, drop in and have a look. If you get a chance to see it, let me know what you thought since I probably won't get a chance to make it down there.
