Our Visit to the Divine Mercy Shrine, Stockbridge, MA

The last "extra" trip we made on our drive home to/from Cape Cod was to the National Shrine of the Divine Mercy in Stockbridge, Massachusetts.  There is so much there that honors the Divine Mercy of Jesus, St. Faustina Kowalska (to whom the specific image was revealed), and St. John Paul II, the Pope that cannonized Faustina.  The Church is just beautiful!  I would have loved to go crazy in there with the camera, but they were having Adoration and Benediction while we were there.  While it was awesome to pray in front of the Blessed Sacrament there, it wasn't really an appropriate time to start snapping pictures of the artwork around the church!

I got some nice photos outside, though.  One of the highlights of the lovely grounds are the beautiful life-size Stations of the Cross.  The weather was gorgeous so we were able to walk and pray the Stations before getting back on the road!  (Believe me, we needed the exercise and the grace to survive the rest of that loooooong car ride home...)  

James looks a little skeptical about being carried from Station to Station ;)

one of the Women of Jerusalem

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We adore you O, Christ and we bless you;

Because by your holy cross you have redeemed the world!

Art Appreciation: Appreciating Norman Rockwell in a Major Way

American illustrator Norman Rockwell (1894 - 1978) was the artist of our fourth quarter art appreciation.  It was so much fun!!  His art is so very different from the other artists we have previously studied, it took the kids by surprise at first.  I think they were confused about how these "funny" pictures could be part of our art lessons ;)

"Before the Shot" 1958

It really was great fun looking for the little details in his paintings.  We took turns choosing which illustrations we liked best and then would "tell the story" that was painted there.  These were some of our favorites:

"Traffic Conditions" (1949)

"Boy With Baby Carriage" (1916)

"Doctor and the Doll" (1929)

(Here's a post on how we "do" art appreciation in general)  For Rockwell, I used two 2013 calendars, art cards, and these books:

Norman Rockwell (Getting to Know the World's Great Artists), Mike Venezia 

Norman Rockwell: Storyteller With a Brush, Beverly Gherman

Norman Rockwell: the Life of an Artist, Jennifer Rozines Roy

Rockwell: a Boy and His Dog, Loren Spiotta-Di Mare

While looking at his artwork, I noticed that many of the originals were at the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbrige, Massachusetts.  Well, we were going to Massachusetts at the end of June, and Stockbrige just happened to be right off the interstate...  

The day we were at the museum there was a reunion of people that has served as models for Rockwell.  That would have been interesting to check out, but we were just there for a short time while on the drive home from Cape Cod.  It was a 12-hour ordeal driving home that day.  I'm so glad that we got to spend part of that time here seeing some of Rockwell's original works!  I was especially happy that the kids enjoyed it as much as they did, Ruth in particular. It was a pretty great "homeschool" moment to watch them look at a painting and then realize, "I know this one!"  I think this was the first time they've seen originals of art they've studied and they were pretty impressed.  It was a real treat for all of us!