OUT OF THE CLOSET WITH NORMAN ROCKWELL

OK, it's time I stepped out of this closet I've been confined to by my society's harsh and terribly moral standards. I admit before all the world I am now and have always been a devoted Norman Rockwell fan. As counter-culture and perhaps even counter-biblical as that sounds, I feel free at last to say so in public....!

Maybe George Lucas and Stephen Spielberg helped me step out like this, for they too have told the world of their Rockwellian affections. There is a new exhibit of their Rockwell collections at the prestigious Smithsonian. And you just can't get any more out-of-the-closet than that.

Of course, the Hollywood twins are late-comers to this addiction. I began my love affair in the 40s when I delivered those wondrous "Saturday Evening Posts" featuring Mr. R's charming cover illustrations. As the new exhibit states: "Rockwell's cheerful America has lately acquired a startling relevance both inside and outside the art world; in part because it symbolizes an era when connectivity did not require a USB cable."

All these decades I have had to gather my modest collection behind closed doors, for fear of the laughter of more hard-nosed, sophisticated friends. Their derisive dismissals were always the same: "Grow up, kid, that America never existed!" They smugly pointed to all the crime and violence and poverty that Rockwell's sentimentality "covered up." And yet, I tell my friends -- and now the entire world of cyberspace -- idealization has been a reputable tradition in art at least from the times Greeks spent whole lifetimes erecting their Parthenon. As have countless artists, teachers and

Rockwell's "idealization" of America does not embarrass me one whit. Nor Lucas and Spielberg. We've seen it! Lived it! Valued it! Seems to me, if you reach for the stars, you'll never come up with a handful of mud..