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Thursday October 30, 2008 10:51 -0700
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Thursday October 30, 2008 10:51 -0700 |
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Could
a fourteen-year old school boy imagine where he would live when he grew up? Was
there a supernatural force working in 1962 when this extraordinary painting was
created? I have no idea. I
do know that I have a perfect example of how my imagination works freely in
creating exciting paintings of subjects that exhibit real color and lighting
effects. To me, this is a visual foundation of my personal belief that my
artistic talents are a pure gift. God
works in mysterious ways! I am a
very spiritual person and a true believer.
To me my talents are being used for His glory, not mine.
My
childlike wonder and faith have never been shaken despite many challenges and
tragedies in our lives. Religion,
on the other hand, is a very personal matter.
Moreover, for those matters I deferred my lack of experience to an
explanation that was given to me by my best friend, Apollo 15 Astronaut Jim
Irwin. As I learn to understand
these personal matters, I will tell that story on our Apollo15.com
website. THE
ACCIDENTAL DISCOVERY With
this as a historical background, two other details come to mind about how the
process of my painting with fluorescent color and blacklight illumination
evolved at that time. The first was the tragedy of my dear parent's divorce. The
second factor was how my time was occupied during those difficult years. It was
an era of great emotional turmoil for our family. Up until my parents separated,
our family had been given great blessings and joy. Shortly
after my parents split up and later were divorced, I found myself caught in the
middle. Up until that time, I had
really been blessed. The breakup of
my parent's marriage resulted in a lot of dysfunctional behavior with many
members of the family. Their
breakup became the center of all family affairs from 1959 until 1961.
To a child this was a long time. I
was sent to live with relatives during this transition.
Our home was never the same. I
found great satisfaction in both drawing airplane pictures and building models.
The summer of 1959 and 1961, were spent living with my Uncle Jim Smith and his
family at Webb Air Force Base in Big Spring Texas. My Uncle Jim was a young Air
Force captain serving as maintenance officer. He took me to the base many times.
I learned many important lessons in life from my Uncle Jim and decided I wanted
a career in aviation. I
was active in Boy Scouts, athletics in school and eagerly waited the day I would
turn thirteen years old. That was
the day I joined the Civil Air Patrol. My family had great wealth and I was
never wanting for needs. All of the
Broome children were raised with great appreciation for Nature, God's Will, and
a strong emphasis on the Golden Rule. My
development years between the ages of 12 and 15 were spent living with different
relatives for long periods of time. I
was blessed to learn great lessons in life from all my loving relatives who
pitched in to help my Mom out after she became responsible for four young boys.
Tragedy in later life would claim the lives of two of my brothers.
I
built a nice art studio in the basement of our new home in Littleton and had an
area where I painted and another area where I built model airplanes.
I also had a very nice train layout!
Growing up is hard to do when a kid has so many wonderful toys! Quite
by accident, I plugged in the old party blacklights one evening and noticed that
my models would glow under the purple light.
In those years the Air Force (and many civilian operators) painted real
aircraft with bold Dayglow colors. This
was an effort to make the aircraft more visible to avoid mid air collisions.
My Uncle Jim had moved to Denver and he helped me locate the correct
colors to apply to my models. I also used these brilliant paints on my third oil painting of my dream home. Therefore, it can accurately be told that my first Starlite painting was created by accident! Almost all of my original paintings since 1962 have been created with the fluorescent colors. In addition, nearly every painting was of an airplane. Incidentally, it was previously noted that my only formal art training was in the art classes in high school. It should be noted that I received an "F" from Mr. Dean, my art teacher at Littleton High School, in the first semester of my junior year. I failed because I did not turn in all my assignments and flunked the art history tests! Nevertheless, here are a few of the illustrations in my art portfolio from that class… |
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