![]() |
|
What does
the 1964 Grad Dance at John Oliver High School have to do
with Summer Soundathon? Well, not very much I guess, except
for the teens dancing to the live rock 'n roll bands and the
fact that Grad time means that Summer is just around the
corner. Bruce Stewart describes his painting which, in his
own words "started out as a large acrylic on canvas about 12
years ago. Then, for a 'theme' print for John Oliver's 40th
reunion, which I didn't attend, I sent this along as a
framed large color print, which was auctioned off to raise
funds for ongoing student programs at the school. For the
event, I dove into my high school year book (Class of '64),
rephotographed many of the grads I knew and incorporated
them into the painted bits already worked out years before.
Everything was in black and white (and small!), which I
reworked in color doing a whole lot of digital 'airbrush'
retouching. Incorporated mood lighting and glitterball
stars, and there it was. By the way, the fellow in the
foreground with the camera (Alfred Lam) was the unofficial
school photographer, and was based on a recent shot of him.
Incidentally, it was he who bought the print on the night of
the reunion! . . .One other aside: the fellow at the piano
in this painting is a fellow 'Class of '64' grad, Bill
Gibson, who played piano and organ with 'Jason Hoover and
the Epics'. What still goes around, still keeps coming
around!" |