August 11, 2005
Lost Art
This entry is sort of a gift to my two old high school pals Fritz and Frank. Fritz, Frank, and I were friends all through junior high and high school, and in our senior year of high school the three of us all had sixth period art with Mr. Akins.
From my point of view, last period art was like a “free period” because Mr. Akins was rather lenient as far as discipline went in his classroom, and even more so with the three of us because Fritz and Frank are talented artists, and were good students as well. I was their friend so any generosity Mr. Akins afforded Fritz and Frank was also granted to me through some sort of misplaced osmosis. To give you some idea how easy the class was, I turned in two assignments over the course of a year, and dabbled with a third for several months. For my efforts I was awarded an “A”.
Below is a sample of the work I turned out that year. You will see why it took so long to perfect this masterpiece. It is one of my greatest works, and it alone would have been enough to earn the grade that I got that year. Alas, the painting ended up frameless, and in the back of my closet for the past 27 years. While that resulted in a few dog-eared corners, it did protect the colors from any damaging light, and so they are still vibrant to this day.
Now, through the miracle of IP addressing and reliable connectivity, I am able to share this great work with the rest of the world.
I call it, “The Aristocrats”, and I am presenting it free of charge for your viewing pleasure.
Ahhh! I remember this painting! It is so cool to see it again. It is strange that I even recall the texture and the cloud shapes.
It is Merle Akin's famous "tempra resist" technique. If you recall, mine was an African-American lady sitting on a trashcan in the "Whistler's Mother" pose. It won first place in an art contest that Mr. Akins entered it in and when I arrived at the awards presentation, I was practically the only white kid there. I think they were quite surprised, too. It was a "multicultural" art contest -- and in those days "multicultural" meant "minority".
My dad still has most of my high school art projects framed and on display in his home. Sadly, my award-winning tempra resist was sold at a yard sale by my roommates in Los Angeles. They took it out of storage from our garage along with several other paintings while I was at work. One was done by a college instructor and it was probably worth a few thousand dollars (I've seen his work sell on eBay for that) -- I think they got $20 for it. Asshats!
Posted by: Fritz at August 11, 2005 12:15 PMI remember your painting, Fritz. I was thinking about it as I wrote this entry. As I remember, it was hanging in your parent's house for a while when we were still in high school.
Posted by: Jeff at August 11, 2005 12:27 PMYou know, I wish I could find a copy of the photograph I copied the image from. I think it was National Geographic.
I will have seriously look for it sometime.
Posted by: Jeff at August 11, 2005 12:47 PMI am fairly certain it was National Geographic.
Posted by: Fritz at August 11, 2005 1:33 PMThanks, Jeff! That's too cool. I've got tears in my eyes and a big ol' lump in my throat looking at that picture. Reminds me of days when we were all so full of energy, ambition and blind faith. 27 years ago? Seems like yesterday.
My project was a hang-glider in front of a sunset, if I recall. Also from a National Geographic.
Posted by: Frank L. at August 11, 2005 9:31 PM