This is a section
of a forthcoming book devoted to the aerospace art of Rick Broome and his
family. It is devoted to the 2013 Official Class Painting and includes
historical information regarding the beginning of the tradition the Broome
family pioneered four decades ago as well as information regarding
publication of print editions and other historical information.
Creating the original
painting from which reproductions of the 2013 Class Painting “ABOVE
AND BEYOND …” are published took over 1000 hours of studio time and
was completed in time to have a prototype print edition unveiled at Ring
Dance.
The Class of 2013
chose General Curt LeMay as their Class Exemplar and commissioned the Broome
family to create a painting signifying their selection. Rick created a
painting titled “PEACE IS OUR PROFESSION” featuring a Cold
War B-52H tail number 55 flying nuclear alert during the Cuban Missile
crisis for the Class as their Exemplar Class Print. The year before Rick
had created a painting titled “MY DEAR CURT ….” which featured
the statue of General Hap Arnold next to Arnold Hall with a B-29 and B-25
flying over the scene. This was the Broome’s official Exemplar print for
the class of 2012.
The 2013 Class
Painting dovetails historically into the 2012 Legacy painting and harkens
back to the heady days of America’s Cold War with the Soviet Union. In
addition to the venerable B-52H which had flown nuclear alert in 1962 both
the B-1B and B-2 bombers are flying in formation above the
aerial landscape of the cadet area. Taking into account the history of air
power during the 33 years since the 1979 Official Class Print was published
-- as well as looking forward to the future – the inclusion of the F-35 in
formation with two A-10’s below and beyond the bomber
formation are also depicted in the 2013 Class Crest .
The vision for the
Official Class Print came from working with cadets on the 2013 Class
Painting Committee beginning when they were 3 degrees. It was agreed that
the “Bomber Class” should be represented once again with the B-52. Added to
this aircraft flying high above the Academy with the cadet area in the
distance are special models of both the B-1B and B-2 Stealth bomber. Adding
up these numbers equals 55 representing the 55th graduating
class.
On the ten year
anniversary of September 11, 2001 at the exact hour that America was
attacked by terrorists Rick Broome was flying an Aero Club Cessna 172 with
his friend and instructor pilot Jim Van Namme in the right seat shooting
aerial photos over the cadet area of the Academy. A waiver was issued so
that Broome could fly as low as 500 feet over the academic area. Broome
recalled that he had flown solo in a Cessna 172 to photograph the background
that was depicted in the very first Class Painting in 1974 titled “Dawn
Patrol Solo” nearly four decades ago.
Meetings were held
with cadets from the 2013 Class Painting Committee and the view of the cadet
area was selected from over 150 photos that had been taken on 9-11-12. This
view is similar to the background landscape selected for the 1979 Class
Painting. And it was a natural selection to title the 2013 Class Painting
“ABOVE AND BEYOND” as the bombers are flying above and the attack
aircraft are flying beyond the cadet area.
Working with graduates
who had been part of Class Painting committees from previous year’s the
selection of bomber aircraft include three bombers in the fine art Class
Painting. Both the B-1B and B-52 are currently assigned to test squadrons at
Edwards AFB and involved in integrating the latest electronics into the
aircraft for future installation into the bomber fleet. The B-52 is a 1962
production aircraft tail number 50. The B-1B Lancer is tail number 75.
The B-2 “Spirit”
bomber tail number was suggested by 1989 USAFA graduate Colonel Paul Tibbets
IV. A close family friend and CIC of the 1989 Class Painting “She’s So
Fine!” Colonel Tibbets noted that tail number 1087 is the flagship of
the B-2 fleet and was his personal aircraft when Paul was a Squadron
Commander in his famous grandfather’s old outfit during the initial air war
against the Taliban in 2001.
One of the trademarks
of the Class Paintings has been to incorporate the Class Color into the
original painting wherever possible. Both the colors gray and silver
dominated the aerial landscape of clouds and the aircraft. As the painting
was nearing completion it needed some color to warm up the background sky.
Little did the Broome’s realize that six months later, in the summer of
2012; the colors of the clouds he created in the far background near the
horizon of the Class Painting would bear a striking resemblance to the
clouds that occurred in late June because of the infamous Waldo Canyon
fire.
With the yellow orange
and purple clouds on the horizon Rick Broome chose to place a bolt of
lightning off in the distance in recognition of the bolts of lightning in
the original Strategic Air Command shield. Upon close inspection one of the
hidden vignettes can be noted as the lightning forms the number 13. Many
other trade dress copyright items are incorporated into each class painting
to include the gold prop and wings; the Polaris Star, and “Beat Army” as
well as “Sink Navy.” These items have been included in all of the Class
Paintings since the 1970’s.
A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE CLASS PAINTING
The Broome family
livelihood has always come from creating their official class prints which
are reproductions of the various class paintings as pioneered by this seven
generation native Coloradan family. The story behind creating the United
States Air Force Academy Class of 2013 original painting “ABOVE AND
BEYOND” is evolutionary covering a USAFA tradition that the Broome
family pioneered and invented over 40 years ago.
The first Official
Class Painting was an original idea of Colorado Aviation Hall of Fame artist
Rick Broome and his wife Billie. It began in 1972 when visiting with cadet
second class John Regni whom frequently visited the Broome family home and
watched Rick create some of his early original paintings.
A proposal was made in
1973 to the Class of 1974 which resulted in a commission to create the very
first Class Painting. That first painting featured the Cessna T-41 and was
titled “Dawn Patrol Solo.” Thus was born the USAFA tradition of
Broome creating a special painting for each graduating class.
Also with this first
painting Broome family incorporated their copyrights with their original
idea of both trademarked and trade dress style of hiding miniature vignettes
in the background of each Class Painting. Indeed one of the prominent
features of “Dawn Patrol Solo” was painting the class year in the FAA
registration number of the T-41, N7874N.
The tradition was
adopted immediately by the Class of 1975 and their Class Painting featured
the Northrop T-38 Thunderbirds and was titled “THUNDERBIRDS 1975.”
Several additional paintings were loaned to the Academy by the Broome family
during these early years. In 1976 Rick created the then new F-15 in an
afterburner climb high over the landscape.
At that time, “THUNDERBIRDS
1975” was the first lithographic print the Broome family published and
began marketing to the graduate community in 1978. The initial list price
of the limited edition print was $75.00 and this price was held for all of
their Class Paintings until 2004.
In 1979 the Class
wanted Broome to create a painting of the prototype B-1A over the cadet area
as this jet was featured on their Class Crest. Broome also titled this
painting “ABOVE AND BEYOND” and the lithographic print series was
limited to 1979 individual signed and numbered Class Prints. The painting
was unveiled to the class of 1979 on April 25, 1979 and over a thousand
cadets placed commissions for their own personal lithographic copies of the
fine art painting on that date.
HISTORICAL NOTES AND VALUATIONS OF EDITIONS
Most of the first 30
years of class prints that were signed and numbered lithographs sold out
before graduation. As a result the values of these editions have increased
significantly. For example in 1997 a collector paid $2500.00 for a sold out
1984 Class Painting titled “GRADUATION PARADE.” And in 2012 at a
live auction a single copy of the 1982 Class Print titled “THUNDERBIRDS
1982” went for $3500.00 during the live auction bid.
The Class Print is in
many ways a reflection of each class’s experiences during their four years
of cadet life. As time moves forward after graduation the reproductions
become like a class ring that is displayed on the wall as every element
included in the class ring is also hidden in vignettes in the class print
background. This is why creating the original painting from which your
reproductions are published took over 1000 hours of studio time.
The values of the 2013
Class Painting “ABOVE AND BEYOND” are established by industry
standards and the prices for this years reproductions are far below market
value. For example local artists typically sell the larger canvas editions
of their reproductions for $2000.00 and above compared to your cadet special
price of $325.00 a savings of $1775.00 from industry standard list price.
In addition to
offering our fine art reproductions at savings of up to 75 percent less than
retail we also discovered decades ago that cadets and parents were paying
exorbitant prices for framing our art and not getting what they paid for.
For example our basic cadet priced frame for the best canvas edition we
offer has a list price of $550.00 and we only charge $295.00 for the custom
double raised matted frame and glass which we designed to compliment our
art.
All of our collectors
receive a statement of authenticity and replacement value for insurance
purposes. The canvas editions look just like an original painting. And
unique to our trade dress and copyrights for our Class Paintings each
edition is given an “Art Proof” serial number unique to each edition. Each
of the canvas editions are signed with metallic silver paint on the original
edition with the serial number below artist Rick Broome’s hand written
signature.
The Broome family has
always sold their Class Prints at WHOLESALE prices to their
collectors and cadets. And thus the actual retail values of the various
editions are about twice what cadets and parents pay for their personal
copies. This year’s limited edition signed and numbered edition print is
valued at $750.00 and yet is offered to collectors including
the custom frame at only $355.00. After graduation the print will increase
in value to over $1000.00 as the edition is limited to only 313 signed and
numbered prints and expected to be sold out soon.
PUBLICATION METHODS AND VALUES
The Broome family
print editions have always been published using the finest methods and
techniques possible. Up until 2004 the prints were published using the
offset lithography method. This essentially involved printing on an offset
press that was the size of a locomotive train engine. There were a lot of
problems with defective prints using this method and we would typically
publish four times as many sheets of paper and ink as the size of the
limited edition were to be in each class series. During the early years and
through about 2005 cadets and parents would commission on average 750
limited editions per year. The average direct cost of a single sheet of
paper and ink using this method of publication was about $37.50.
Digital technology
began taking over the publication of reproductions about ten years ago. The
computer age allowed us to get far more color and detail into our
reproductions of our original paintings. The process is called Giclee
(pronounced Zgee-Clay) which is a French word for “spraying of ink.” This
new process which we began using in 2001 allowed us to publish our art on
artists tight weave canvas too in addition to archival fine art paper. The
canvas editions often looked just as good if not better than the original
paintings.
Our family made a
heavy investment in the computer technology and printer to allow us to self
publish beginning in 2005. Thus we are able to publish very valuable
reproductions of our original paintings without using outside and outsourced
companies. By self publishing we have total control over our products and
the amount of money we save self publishing is passed along to our
collectors!
One of the several
factors that are incorporated into this modern and expensive method of
publication involves time. When we did offset limited edition lithographs
the printing press was able to publish 7000 lithographs per hour.
The new printer which
we self publish our editions upon essentially spray paints each collectors
print edition individually using archival pigmented inks versus fade
resistant old fashioned inks used in offset lithography. It takes an
enormous amount of time it takes to create a single edition compared to old
fashioned offset lithography. Almost an hour is required to produce a
single large canvas print.
STARLITE EDITIONS
Rick Broome invented a
unique method of painting when he was 15 years old that incorporates paints
that are sensitive to safe blacklight blue ultraviolet light. Rick learned
how to paint in ninth grade and studied Aircraft Maintenance Engineering in
college at Northrop Institute of Technology in Inglewood, California.
Northrop was founded by aerospace pioneer Jack Northrop to provide engineers
during WW II. Rick Broome is totally self taught as an artist and his only
art lessons were in junior and senior high school.
Termed “Starlite” the
derivative original paintings of the masterpiece are considered original art
as Rick completely repaints the aerial scene and background such that the
painting changes from a day scene to nocturnal under special lighting and
custom picture frame invented by the Broome family.
Completed Starlite
derivative originals take about 50 hours to remaster on the canvas editions
and are available in three sizes. They appraise for purposes of insurance
from between $15,000.00 to $18,500.00 depending on the size and amount of
creative work required to complete the Starlite painting. Additional items
can be specified such as squadron and club patches as well as glider IP and
jump wings and are often requested by our collectors to make their Starlite
totally unique as well as provide future reminders of their cadet life.
-- 30 --
There have been several illustrators whom have infringed upon the copyrights
and trade dress of the Broome family artwork over the years. Most
significantly were a series of recent copyright and specific trade dress
violations. Apparently according to public record several USAFA Classes,
cadets and parents did business in a scheme that was perpetrated by a
convicted drug felon who served a nine year prison term in Cook County for
manufacture and distribution of cocaine. These illegal copyright violations
were not pursued in a court of law by the Broome family who had a legal case
in a court of Federal Law but the family did not want to bring great
embarrassment upon our beloved Air Force Academy. However, this being noted
the illegal copyright and trade dress violations were -- according to
Federal Copyright Law and the FBI – also considered plagiarism.
