Fire Rescue 1931

Editor: This is Norman Rockwell's "Fire Rescue," painted in 1931. The frenetic energy just leaps out – they look like they’re in a flat-out sprint, even the dog. The realism makes it feel so immediate. What grabs your attention most about this work? Curator: It's funny, isn’t it? Rockwell makes us believe we're right there, breathlessly keeping pace. The stark, graphic nature, the circular dark mass enclosing our heroic duo reminds me a little of old silent film intertitles, those brief pauses before a moment of suspense! See how the eye darts from the straining expressions to those wonderfully rendered flying feet! Does that circle do the trick of concentrating our minds, almost cinematically? Editor: That's such a great way to put it! The circle *does* kind of zoom in. I was also struck by how… well, ordinary, everyone seems. Curator: Precisely! Rockwell’s genius, I think, lies in celebrating the everyday hero. It’s not about gleaming knights, it’s about that slight awkwardness, that shared, very human, sense of urgency to charge forward in the hope we may serve some value to our neighbor. Do you catch the slight almost uncomfortable touch of the shoulder of the older figure by the young lad? Editor: Now that you mention it, yes. I see how even something so small is such a loaded moment. Curator: Right? These aren't distant figures. This man probably coached baseball down at the local diamond last Tuesday, then put on that clunky fireman helmet. I think Rockwell invites us not just to admire bravery, but to see its potential within ourselves. A simple truth in simple action, perhaps? What did you take away from the piece? Editor: It’s interesting to think about heroism not as something grand and distant, but rooted in the everyday. I'll remember that! Curator: And me; that even when running one doesn’t have to have our laces properly tightened! There's an imperfection in most every day reality.