Edward Hopper was born on this date.

[Dyedinthewoolliberal]

[Polly Hennessey]

1. My favorite American artist.

[femmocrat]

2. Mine too!

[lunatica]

3. His paintings are very American in how they feel to me

Being a new country in many ways we tend to feel isolated and introspective and somewhat disconnected from each other. Maybe because though we are a country of immigrants we have yet to be the melting pot we claim we are. Each immigrant group duplicated it’s old world customs because there really isn’t a larger general culture unique to the the US, other than the somewhat superficial spillover of many cultures. The result is a feeling of being not quite connected to each other in the complete way that shared customs and history and a long historic past connect other countries. Our national pop culture is a kind of adhesive that shows what we have in common with all Americans. It binds us together, so though we think of ourselves as Americans, we’re also descendants of many different cultures.

This is what looking at Hopper’s paintings that include human figures makes me think. Or perhaps a better phrase is what his paintings make me feel.