Yesterday, I had an opportunity to go back in time to my high school days. After lunch with some dear friends, one of whom was recently reunited with us through the wonders of Facebook, I happened to be driving past our school. It's now a vocational-technical college. On a spontaneous whim, we went in and they allowed us to take a tour of the building even though we were not prospective students!
My first stop was the art studio, which is now an office.
This is me in 2009; below is the same room in 1981 with my fellow art-club members. The easel off to the right in the photo may even be the one I now have, as when our school was closed by the archdiocese at the end of my junior year, they allowed us to keep many art supplies.
The next stop was the (hated) (for me, anyway) gym, which remained unchanged from our days there:
I was VERY surprised to see this ghost image of a mural the school had had me paint there, of our school mascot "Endie," twenty-eight years ago!
Here is how it looked back then:
I remember thinking that I used oil paint (provided by the art department) and that it must have been painted over by the college with latex paint!! Endie's dress was our school's dual colors of blue and brown. I also remember that as much as I disliked PE, I did contribute something to the sports-minded students, fans and lone gym teacher with that mural.
I also contributed cartoons to the school newspaper and yearbook. This is an appropriate post to show them, I suppose...
Another highlight of high school for me, was a brush with major league baseball, which of course I had no inkling would figure largely in my caricature career. (I drew at almost all Philadelphia Phillies home games from 2004 through 2007). The last time the Phantastic Phillies won the World Series, (before 2008's legendary win) was during my junior year. The late famed pitcher Tug McGraw (whose son is country singer Tim McGraw) happened to live close to our school then, and he came to celebrate with us one late winter's day. I was asked to create a huge card that all 400 students signed for him. Wonder where he put it?!
Back to the current college: The serenity of the chapel is being put to good use as their library.
I really did experience deja vu walking the hallways, and especially climbing the stairs and seeing the flooring that is still there from our day, and even the same seat cushions in the auditorium!! However, my happiest memories are of the encouragement I received on being an artist.
Thanks for that peek into the past , Em! aint it great to see how much you've grown? Do you cringe when you see your past drawings? I know mine didnt look that good in High School.
ReplyDeleteThanks Elgin! Yes, I cringe when I see my old stuff, but as you say, it shows where you've come from. I can still see my own style in these, it's just more polished and easily expressed now.:-)
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