Laughter, the best medicine

One of the best forms of art are the ones that are derived from everyday scenes. Images that can be recreated as a painting or a cartoon inspired by life around us, by incidents and people around us- our family, the neighbor's pet, the mailman's van or perhaps even the coworker's painful commute-life, unscripted.

Two artists constantly amuse and entertain me in this regard. Their ability to look at ordinary scenes and create magic in the form of an art piece, constantly amazes me.

One is an American, Norman Rockwell. While I own some of his prints, this one in particular is one of my favorites.

Image source : Here

Aptly titled Roadblock, check out the minutia that is depicted in the painting. Notice the expressions in the faces of the various characters? The window cleaner, a couple, some kids, the musician- a plethora of people, animals and a common everyday scene. So beautifully presented, isn't it? Landscapes, still-life aside, there is beauty in banality.

Norman Rockwell's artwork has been published in the Saturday Post in the early 60s and 70s in America, depicting the life and times of the people in those times.

The next is the Goan cartoonist- Mario Miranda. Image source- here.

I've grown up on his cartoons in ToI and when I met my friend L who is from Goa, there is not one year I have not pestered her to bring me an original Mario Miranda piece on her annual trips back home. Last year, she finally obliged(probably just to shut me up for good). It is a ceramic plate, quintessential Mario art work, depicting Goa. The piece I want to show here of Mario is this one.

Its a Goan village market. Again, there's so many little details that make up this whole scene. And what appeals to me is the normalcy or commonality of this scene. An everyday occurrence, it could be any town or village across the world.

A long time ago I read this quote by Herman Hess "Every man is more than just himself; he also represents the unique, the very special and always significant and remarkable point at which the world's phenomena intersect, only once in this way, and never again."

These two artists, in their own brilliant ways, prove this! They also say a picture is worth a thousand words and there's no greater example than such masterpieces that stand testament to just that adage.