Welcome to the Hillsdale College online learning podcast.

I am Jeremiah Regan, joined again by Professor Emeritus of Art, Sam Connect.

Today we're discussing lecture three of American paintings, everyday Americans.

So we start the course, Sam, with a lecture on American heroes, famous Americans, statesmen, presidents, war heroes.

But we dedicate a whole lecture to you explaining paintings of ordinary Americans, people who are merely exercising their freedom, laboring for their property, defending their rights, loving their neighbors.

What's this one about?

I really warmed up to the opportunity of this lecture, even though I was excited and deeply involved with the other three.

But in this one, it felt like I had an opportunity to introduce people to portraits of Americans

that they might not otherwise encounter.

You know, these courses overall, in a mundane sort of way,

will make you really great at answering jeopardy questions.

But in a nobler way, hopefully,

they will excite you to learn more about American art

and what it's like to be an American in general

through the eyes of painters. So with ordinary Americans

lecture, we see a farmer here, a blacksmith there. We see what some might at first glance consider to be a very unattractive middle-aged woman

with a stray eye even. But I have felt that there is beauty in the truth that American

painters find in their subjects, be they neighbors or newcomers or whom have you. One of my favorites

from that series is one of the first ones in the lecture, and it shows a blacksmith, a guy

from Philadelphia called Pat Lyon. And a guy who's... Great painting. Yeah, it's so fun too because when you read about it,

not only reading the picture and the clues to his story that are in the picture,

but you read about him in a text, you realize, oh, this is an ex-con.

...