Blog Post #2 The Lonely Palette Podcast Episode 70 Norman Rockwell’s Freedom of Speech (1943) - Katherine Carter

The Lonely Palette Podcast Episode 70 Norman Rockwell’s Freedom of Speech

The podcast starts off with the host, Tamara, introducing the guest, Bernard Avishai, who is her dad. In the interview Tamara has Bernard talk about her childhood home that featured replicas of Norman Rockwell’s freedom paintings. Bernard then talks about why the American freedom scene resonated with him so much. He says that America is “the ideal of individual rights, of individual idiosyncrasy, of tolerance.” (Avishai, 2:45) Bernard then talks about the idea of educating people about their right to democracy. Finally he talks about the defense of freedom of speech even for people he might disagree with and how this painting, despite what the real life people were talking about in this time, is still a catalyst for that. Regardless of the topic, Bernard still feels as though we still have that right to speak on said topic. He mentions the dignity on the face of the subject and how it represents the dignity of a small town and that despite disagreements, these people will still act in a neighborly way.

After the interview, Tamara talks about one of her first memories of debating and discourse which happened to be a debate on if peanut butter and jelly on hotdogs is good or not. She then speaks on how Rockwell’s Freedom of Speech is used in today's media through memes, and why it is used by today's generation. She talks about Rockwell's take on speech and freedom as well as the other paintings that are a part of the freedom collection: want, fear, worship, and speech.

For my analysis, something that stuck out to me was when Tamara asked if Bernard's opinion of Rockwell’s Freedom of Speech might have changed knowing the full story behind that painting. It stuck out to me because I didn't know there was a bigger story to this particular painting. For those who don't know, the story behind the painting is based off of a town meeting that was held in Rockwell’s home town where a man, Jim Edgerton, actually stood against the rebuilding of a school that was burned down. The reason why it stuck out to me was because when I think about Bernard's answer, while I can admire that he still sticks through with his idea of freedom of speech for all even if he very much so disagrees with it, I personally can't stand the idea of somebody using the freedom of speech debate when their own speech is filled with hate. 

What the man in the painting can do is represent the bigger topics. By representing the bigger topics, he also represents the minority in conversations. In the case of the actual person this painting is about, he is in the minority of disagreeing with building a new school. There are plenty of reasons why building a new school is a positive opportunity but for him he is seeing the negativity that might come with it. No matter what side someone might be on, if you feel like you are by yourself in that moment you are embodying this moment that Rockwell shows: emotions, facial expressions, body language, etc. Another topic that was mentioned in the podcast was about the using of this painting as a meme and just using many older artwork for memes. The reason why it stuck out to me is because what I find interesting about the generations that are chronically online is that we can essentially take a serious topic with serious emotions and put it with a serious picture/art/sculpture etc and turn it into something to laugh at. I don't critique this in the slightest, in fact I enjoy that we as a generation do this. In a 2019 article Classical Art Memes: Do Art Memes Devalue Art? By Francesca Testa, Testa says that meme culture represents this reliability and can hold a lot of emotional value with it. People look to these memes as a form of communication, whether that be the facial expressions, the body movements, or the captions, these memes help communicate these feelings.

Sources:

Avishai, Tamar. “Episode 70: Norman Rockwell’s Freedom of Speech (1943).” The Lonely Palette Podcast, The Lonely Palette Podcast, 8 July 2025, www.thelonelypalette.com/episodes/2025/6/4/episode-70-norman-rockwells-freedom-of-speech-1943.

Testa, Francesca. “Classical Art Memes: Do Art Memes Devalue Art?” Cartellino, 18 Sept. 2018, cartellino.com/features/2019/09/18/Classical-Art-Memes-Do-Art-Memes-Devalue-Art.

Rockwell, Norman. “Freedom of Speech.” Artchive, 1943, Norman Rockwell Museum, Stockbridge, MA, US, https://www.artchive.com/artwork/freedom-of-speech-norman-rockwell-1943/. Accessed 2025.