I love Loyola High. Twice in my life I was blessed to be assigned to work at 1901 Venice Boulevard in Los Angeles. The first time was for Regency from 1983 to 1986 and then for my first assignment as a priest, from 1990 until 2000.

During those years, the only painting that I did was for the sets in Hannon Theater and several large backdrops for Liturgies in Xavier Center.

I always promised my directors, Chuck Tilley, S.J. and Walt Wolfe, that the sets would be finished before the curtain rose on opening night — they might still be wet, but they’d be done. I loved the years in Hannon working with so many talented students — many more gifted than I. It turned out that painting all of those sets was great preparation for my later graduate studies: working on that large a scale (Hannon is a huge space) really helped me to work large and free. Never mind that after I left Loyola, kids would find paint brushes in sealed cans of paint.

The backdrops were (are) special to me. It’s nice to return to Loyola and see these old friends still in use at school Liturgies.

Update 2023: Returning to Loyola High after eight years in Sacramento, I discovered that my banners were digitalized and are now projected on screens for Liturgies. I took some photos of the Graduation Banner that I designed and painted for the Class of 1994.