What does this painting tell you?

[gejohnston]

[sarge43]

1. It's a tribute/ripoff of a Norman Rockwell painting

Rockwell portrays the young man as a college student. Otherwise, it's exactly the same.

[Aristus]

3. Found it! Not a direct .jpeg, but a link to the NR original.

http://ts3.mm.bing.net/th?id=H.4742087304218758&pid=1.7

Yep. Pretty close...

[ohiosmith]

4. Nice catch!

[gejohnston]

6. Breaking Home Ties

[bigwillq]

2. That dogs are awesome (nt)

[hlthe2b]

5. Yes... that universal comfort comes in the form of a dog.

:lovey:

[winter is coming]

7. That the dad doesn't think his son will be coming back from his next deployment?? n/t

[underpants]

10. The father has hope for his son (an opportunity he worked to let him have) and concern

that he will never see him again or at least he will not see the same person.

The son is looking at the opportunity and the uncertainty of the world he knows nothing about.

[LancetChick]

8. That painting makes me wonder why Robert Duvall is hanging out at a bus station.

A bus station in the middle of nowhere. And what secrets the younger man could give the National Enquirer if he so chose.

[pinboy3niner]

9. Looks like him, doesn't it? And Duvall lives in the middle of nowhere.

He has a 360-acre farm near The Plains, VA (population 200+), and bought a local restaurant, the Rail Stop. I used to eat there when I passed through before Duvall moved to the area, and once ran into him after he took over when we happened to be having lunch there at the same time. He may have sold the restaurant now, but he still has his farm there.

[femmocrat]

11. That there is an awkwardness between father and son.

The father doesn't know what advice to give the young man. Maybe he has served and remembers the horrors and wishes his son wasn't going there. The father is sad, the son is nervous and anxious to get going. Mom is absent, but represented by the bag lunch. It was too painful for her to say goodbye. The dog is the only one reaching out and showing any connection. She has her paw on his knee and is asking him to stay with her.

It is about the passage of time and leaving behind the old life and embarking on a new one.

[Moondog]

12. Parting, any parting, is sweet sorrow.