Every Picture Tells a Story: The Storytelling of Norman Rockwell

Event Details

This event is presented by the Oxford Arts Council with support from the Oxford City Council and the Oxford Performing Arts Center.  

Dolores Hydock is an actress and storyteller whose presentations highlight the “story” behind a variety of topics from history, art, and literature.  Her work has been featured at conferences, festivals, and special events throughout the United States, including the National Storytelling Festival in Jonesborough, Tennessee. She has served as the teller-in-residence at Jonesborough’s International Story Telling Center, and her 12 CDs of original stories have all received awards from Storytelling World magazine for excellence in storytelling.  She has collaborated with the Birmingham Museum of Art to blend stories with art, and her Christmas Story special airs annually on NPR affiliate WBHM in Birmingham.

Norman Rockwell didn’t just paint pictures; each of his paintings told a story. This program shares a behind-the-scenes look at how Rockwell created his one-image stories in some of his best-loved covers for The Saturday Evening Post.  Rockwell’s early career, his first surprising encounter with the editors of the Saturday evening Post, and the techniques he used in his long and successful career as an illustrator and artist will be described.  Slide images of his sketches, models, paintings-in-process, and finished work provide insight into the step-by-step process Rockwell used in becoming “America’s painter” and storyteller on canvas.