I Can Take A Lot Of Pats

Some People Have Been Kind Enough To Call Me A Fine Artist. I've Always Called Myself An Illustrator. I'm Not Sure What The Difference Is. All I Know Is That Whatever Type Of Work I Do, I Try To Give It My Very Best. Art Has Been My Life.

Without Thinking Too Much About It In Specific Terms, I Was Showing The America I Knew And Observed To Others Who Might Not Have Noticed. My Fundamental Purpose Is To Interpret The Typical American. I Am A Story Teller.

The '20s Ended In An Era Of Extravagance, Sort Of Like The One We're In Now. There Was A Big Crash, But Then The Country Picked Itself Up Again, And We Had Some Great Years. Those Were The Days When American Believed In Itself. I Was Happy And Proud To Be Painting It.

I Didn't Know What To Expect From A Famous Movie Star; Maybe That He'd Be Sort Of Stuck-up, You Know. But Not Gary Cooper. He Horsed Around So Much... That I Had A Hard Time Painting Him.

I Unconsciously Decided That, Even If It Wasn't An Ideal World, It Should Be. So I Painted Only The Ideal Aspects Of It - Pictures In Which There Are No Drunken Slatterns Or Self-centered Mothers... Only Foxy Grandpas Who Played Baseball With The Kids And Boys Who Fished From Logs And Got Up Circuses In The Backyard.