Central Technical School, 50 years Later

Richard Wessell, Mark Thurman, and me with Dustin Garnet, May 27th, 2016

Flash back to June 1963.  Barbara Tenny, Mark Thurman and me

Dr. Dustin Garnet wrote his thesis on the art education at Central Technical School, he has also been an art instructor there for the past decade. It was a supreme honour for me to be one of the ten people he interviewed for his thesis. My post on our interview is here. Just prior to meeting Dustin at the school this spring, I was delighted to receive a hard copy of STUDIES in ART Education, which includes his article Alice's Story: Insights to the Artistic Community of Central Technical School in the 1960s. 

Below is the building where we had our academic studies, reduced as they were to english, economics, science and physical education (in our final year) to accommodate our heavily weighted art subjects which included anatomy, history of art, commercial art, design, life drawing and painting, still life, illustration, lettering, research and museum. Yes museum, because the Royal Ontario Museum is a short walk from Central Tech. We had a half day painting at the ROM, once a week.

"The Main Building" as we called it is most impressive.  May 2016

Before the art building was completed art classes where held in six studios up in the very top of the tower.  Today they are mathematics classrooms. 

Climbing the steps to the tower studios, May 2016

The foyer of the old building is grand ...

It's hard to fathom that we graduated this amazing facility, 50 years ago. An impeccably timed highlight of Bill's and my Friendship Tour, to Ontario and Quebec in May/June (a story for another day) was having Dustin tour us, and two of my classmates, through all of the studios of what is now called the The Art Centre as well as the old, stone school which opened in 1915.

The Art Centre with its amazing north facing windows, May 2016

The foyer inside the front doors of the The Art Centre, May 2016

Dustin began the tour on the top floor of The Art Centre which was, in or time, Virginia Luz's class. We moved along into Dawson Kennedy's then Kathleen Kennedy's studio. In the last top floor studio, which I recall as being shared by Bob Ross and Doris McCarthy, life drawing is still instructed.

Life drawing studio

Here are some of my classmates back in April of 1966 ...

Barry Corston behind John Williamson (RIP) Sandra Ko, Ula Ahonen and Cynthia Jakubowski

 

There were times when models didn't show up and when this happened one of us students would pose. Here you have three former students hamming it up as models ...

Mark, myself and Richard

Me and Mark, life drawing April 1966 - oh how young we were!

Sculpture and print making was not a part of our curriculum. These studios were used by the special art students who studied only art. To enter the special art program, in the 1960s, students had to have previously achieved grade ten in a regular high school program. I did work in the sculpture studio but not until after graduation and as a night school student. 

Clay sculptures in the sculpture studio

The print making studio is a fully equipped masterpiece

Dustin's class back in January 1966.  Lisa Shallhase and Sally Simone working on a lettering project, Richard Wessell looks on

Dustin's studio/classroom today

From the very onset the tour took on a most surreal quality. As we made our way through the studios and halls all sorts of rich memories came flooding in making it difficult to be in the present. After a work week, in abnormally high temperatures without air conditioning (which hadn't been turned on yet) Dustin begged off joining Bill, Mark, Richard and me for a pub supper. I can't speak for the others, but I couldn't shake the sensation of travelling through time until I'd slept that night. 

What a wonderful gift you gave us, Dustin. Many thanks for a treasured opportunity to visit our alma mater with you.   

You may enjoy delving into Central Tech further. Here is the original blog post I wrote and some of the art I created while there. Here you'll see art by my classmates.

Central Tech, Classmate's Art

Somewhere in third year (1964-65) of us kids thought it would be a great idea to collect the work of our fellow classmates. Some didn't want to share or exchange. After they had been marked, our assignments were regularly left in a heap, on a table. We were expected to find and retrieve our own work. On days when there were absentees we enterprising kids helped ourselves to whatever we wanted. It maybe that it was only Helen Salomaa and myself who were thieves! This is how I came to own a small, delightful collection of artwork, some of which I share with you here ...

Helen Salomaa - charcoal 27.5" x 18.25" - 4th year

In her own way Helen was a master of the human form and among many things, she was ambidextrous. She was shrouded in mystery. We never knew her age, but she had to have been older than most of us because she had her own car and a studio in Markham Village, supported we assume by the sale of her oil paintings. 

Barbara Krasinski - gouache 19" x 13" -  3rd year

Barbara's armour was one of the Museum Class assignments. She married and dropped out in third year.

Lisa Shallhese - pencil & watercolour - 21.5" x 15" - 4th year

Lisa had a very avant-guarde flair to her work. Only Simone ever got close to her, she came across as mature and somewhat withdrawn.

Sally Simone - pencil 22" x 15" - 4th year

Simone (you never called her Sally) was a no nonsense, exceptionally petite gal with a most distinctive personal style. She married halfway through third year stayed with us and graduated with honours ... number one student in our class of fifteen.

Sandra Shibata - oil pastel 17" x 13" - 4th year



We had two Sandras. Ko who is Chinese and Shibata who is Japanese. Both gentle spirits.  This drawing illustrates an inner strength not visible in Shibata's outward demeanour.

Murray McLauchlan - conte 24" x 16"- 4th year



Murray's strong portrait, like the kid himself, makes a statement on black paper. His yearbook quote made reference to his probable fate of busking for quarters in a New York subway.

John Williamson - watercolour 19" x 15" - 3rd year

Another Museum Class project by John; an exceptional use of watercolour. Even way back then, he was our most troubled soul. After a short, fast life and somewhere in the past decade he took his own life.

Mark Thurman - charcoal 15.75" x 22" - 4th year

And then there is Mark, the fellow whom we all admired for the talent which simply flowed from him. He was always top of the class until the very last semester of final year when Simone bumped him to second place. I was third. An interesting fact: at the beginning of grade nine we three were the runts of the class all measuring five feet tall. At the end of grade twelve Mark was 5'10", I had grown to 5'6" and Simone was still 5'.

Those were the days my friend, we thought they'd never end.

Central Technical School

Last week, I took a nostalgic trip down memory lane as I photographed old pictures from my art school days.  If Xpresspost is all it's cracked up to be Mark will receive the CD I made him for his birthday, today.

Helen Salomaa in front of the Art Building, January, 1966 

The gal behind the camera most of the time is pictured above.  Our own personal paparazzi; she has left us with a life-long gift of so many photographs.  I stopped in the midst of writing this post to consult Canada 411 where I found Helen's phone number.  After all these years, she and I have just had a long, wonderful and rich conversation. 

In September, 1962, ten days after I entered grade nine and the Art Course at Central Tech, I turned fourteen.  Side by side thirty kids (some came, some went) forged their artistic skills in the four-year art program.  To accommodate the extensive range of art courses our academic classes consisted only of the absolute essentials.  These we studied all together in "the old school" classrooms. 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Technical_School

However, we were split into two groups for art classes and spent glorious hours in the fabulous studios of the art building.  This afforded us an intimacy the likes of which was highly improbable in a regular curriculum of a Toronto Public High School.  At the time Central Tech had an enrollment of 2000 students.

We made art and studied together ...

Mark Thurman, me and John Williamson (RIP), January 1966

... and, we played together ...


 

Neil Sharp, yours truly and Mark Thurman, April 26th, 1964

Being children of the 60s we were naturally influenced by The Beatles.  Above we emulate their Twist and Shout album cover.


Murray McLaughlin, me, Sandra Shibata and Sandra Ko, January, 1966

Having such intense courses, based on solid classical training (in other words we learned how to draw) available to me while so young was undoubtedly one of the finest opportunities of my life.  Art instruction was imparted by instructors of the highest calibre including Canadian icon Doris McCarthy, who taught there for 40 years.


Life drawing was a daily event, April 1966

As the four years flew by I savoured every day dreading its end well before the last year came and went.   

Last day of the last year in Paul Summerskill's class, June 10th, 1966

Many divine turns have sent me in directions I never dreamed of but, to this day, I maintain the foundation that I continue to build on are those precious Central Tech years.