Artist Spotlight
March 2010
Text and images by Celeste Vaught
Tulsa Brick x Brick.
320 South Boston
This is my favorite of the tall buildings downtown. I like its unique shape and that the top was originally designed to be a Zeppelin mooring! Apparently it was used one time for that purpose. When I took the photo, I knew that the distortions of perspective due to the camera lens would lend itself to a fun abstracted view of this scene. It seemed appropriate to break away from the smaller scale paintings and do this one fairly large at 24 x 18". I also chose to do this painting on canvas rather than the prepped panels I've been using. It was nice to have the soft "springy" feel for a change, but also called for a light touch. This painting too was done with heavy body acrylics, a bit more challenging on a larger scale. I began with blocking in the large geometric shapes and then just selecting some areas of detail to establish the context without being too tedious. I also kept the values range fairly close to create a brighter feeling with lots of "air". Also the brushwork was intentionally blurred into the periphery to force the eye up the towers and create that childlike wonder of visiting the "big city" for the first time.
The 320 South Boston Building was originally built in 1917 as a 10 story building and was expanded to its present dimensions of 22 stories in 1929. It was the tallest building in Oklahoma until 1931.
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Claud's Hamburgers
According to the sign, Claud's has been serving burgers to Tulsans since 1954. A fixture in Brookside, this little eatery serves delicious super-thin hamburgers. The simple little white building with the green awnings and signage sure caught my attention early one summer morning. Snapped a photo and this is the painting based on that snapshot. I chose heavy-body acrylics for this painting and wanted to keep the palette fairly subdued to emphasize the historic feel of the place.
And here’s one of the nice stories about Claud’s:
“I have a little story about Claud's Hamburgers history. My ex-brother in law lives in Las Cruces but was raised in Tulsa and not too far from Peoria. Throughout his school years, he ate burgers at Claud's and got his hair cut around the corner on 41st. When he would come back to Tulsa to visit us, his routine was haircut first and then to Claud's to sit at the bar and enjoy one of his favorite foods. We, of course, joined him. I think the barber has since died. So......fond memories of Claud's.”
B. Dalsing, Kiefer, Oklahoma
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Atlas Life Sign
I think Boston Avenue offers one of the most splendid views of downtown Tulsa in both directions. The Atlas Life Sign is a marvelous landmark. It's a four-story neon sign - quite dramatic. The Atlas Life Building was completed in 1922 and added to the National Register in 2009.
Contributed story:
"My favorite painting by far is the one of the Atlas Life Building, which is where I worked in the early 1980s after college graduation. I am trying to decide if I should share the story of sneaking to the building’s rooftop where my boyfriend and I would spend romantic moments while viewing the downtown lights. It was a special and magical place. We thought we were the only ones sneaky enough to visit the roof. On one trip to the roof top, we discovered a broken wine glass, and I was shattered (no pun intended) that others had also been to our romantic hide-away! Still beautiful memories!"
L. Cain, Tulsa
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Pheonix Cleaners
Last, but by far not the least is one of my absolute favorite Deco Streamline buildings in all of Tulsa, so much so that I’ve actually painted it 4 times! I find the curved façade and neon marquee irresistible. But the “cats meow” is the privilege I’ve had of becoming acquainted with the family who’s owned this business for four generations – particularly the matriarch of the clan who’s in her 90s. A lover of art herself and a storehouse of historical information about Tulsa buildings, she’s strongly responsible for the inclusion of personal stories with the series. To hear that she knew the man who made the Atlas Life Sign for example, was amazing. It’s enriched the project tremendously getting to know her. And the following is a lovely story with insight into the reason for customer loyalty to this business:
“Just a little story about the Phoenix Cleaners. I was a regular customer about 1970 thru 73. I lived at Woodward Park Apts. at 21st and Peoria and I worked at Skelly Oil at 15th and Boulder. On Monday mornings I would pull in front of the cleaners, drop my cleaning off and on to work. More times than I want to remember I would lock my car door [with the car running] take my clothes in, out to the car, door locked with the keys inside. The owner’s son saw me do this enough times that when I went inside for help he would have a clothes hangers in his hand ready to hand to me to pull the lock up inside the car door. They were such nice people I wish I lived close by to use them now.”
R. Romer, Tulsa
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