Newton Elementary School 1960-1968
South High School (Torrance) 1968-1972
Dwight was a accomplished artist and illustrator, and a good
friend of mine in middle school and most of high school. Later on, our
interests diverged and we drifted apart, and I lost contact with him
after high school.
Decades later, I was wondering what kind of work he
was doing, expecting something like illustration, animation, or
set design. When I did a search on the Web, I was shocked and saddened to
learn that he had died in 1991, at the age of 36,
of AIDS.
Here are some examples of his early artwork.
Dwight designed this parade float for our Boy Scout troop.
That's Dwight behind the "Youth: America's Future" sign.
"Youth: America's Future" was the theme of the parade, which
included floats made by various troops in the Los Angeles area.
Our troop chose a space exploration theme, featuring the NASA
astronaut patch from the then-recent first Moon landing, Apollo 11.
The patch shows an American Eagle clutching an olive branch and
landing on the Moon. Dwight did most of the painting work.
The scroll on the left side of the patch
says "First Scouts on the Moon, Neil Armstrong (Eagle);
Buzz Aldrin (2nd Class)".
The white Lunar Module was made from a Baskin Robbins cardboard
ice cream container, with white and yellow flames coming out the
back (crepe paper) and a red plume (chicken wire?) that swooshed from front to back.
Dwight made the stylized "656" numerals at the rear, our troop number.
I made the blue-and-white rocket out of cardboard. The Scout emblem, main sign,
and circular patch were plywood.
The float was constructed on a boat trailer, which was pulled by
two boys down the parade route, "built and moved by boy power". The
float won second place in the best float competition. Our scoutmaster believed
the we won second place (not first place) only because the judges must
have thought that the float was the work of adults and therefore downgraded
the prize, when in fact it was entirely conceived, designed, and built
by the boys in our troop.
The skull and crossbones
poster was put on the door of the high school darkroom as a warning not to open
the door while anyone was working inside, to prevent their
light-sensitive films and paper from being ruined. Within a week, it
was torn down by vandals.
These are some sketches he drew for an
animation project that was never completed.
More sketches for the same animation project.
Looks like a drag-racing wasp -- I don't know what for.
