Creepy Classics & Monster Bash News

I was a monster movie fan since I was very young...heck, a monster fan before I even saw the movies. I had just seen monsters first in merchandising and in comic books. Those monsters began living in my art classes.

As far back as kindergarten I was drawing Frankenstein's monster with crayons. The big hard crayons they passed out in kindergarten. They were thick and semi-round with one flat edge (remember those?). Things really got going in about third grade. I don't always remember teachers from the past, but my art teachers always stood out. I loved art and I was able to let my monsters leak out in those classes.

In third grade, at Park Forest Elementary School, Mr. Schultz introduced me to sculpting with potter's clay and a kiln. Only the teacher was allowed to fire stuff in the kiln. Mr. Shultz showed us some elaborate flower pots and mugs that older students had made as examples. While the guys were making mugs and animals like bears, the girls were making little flower pots and cats. Me, why I tackled the head of the Frankenstein Monster, of course. Once painted with green and black, Mr. Shultz eyed it oddly, and put it in-line to be baked in the kiln.

My mom never flinched when I'd bring home my art projects. No matter how odd.

These subject matters never got old to me...right through high school. When we were asked by our high school art teacher, Mr. Orchowski, to use a grid pattern and do a reproduction of a classical painting with acrylics or oils, I went off mark a little. I did a reproduction of Frank Frazetta's "Death Dealer" painting. A hulking dark figure on a horse with a bloodied axe. It was a classic to me.

The projects and art rolled on. Stippling, oils, acrylics, crow quill pen and ink, charcoal, egg shell paper negative scratch art....all with visions of monsters. Bigfoot paintings, comic book artist Steve Ditko's cosmic other dimensional art, attempts at the style of pulp artist Virgin Finley. They all poured out of me. That's what roamed in my head.

For a three dimensional art piece, I got permission to do a strange one. I did a plaster cast of a friend's face and hands. Poured latex into the molds and pulled out a thick latex mask and life-like hands. I brought in old clothes from home and a pair of sneakers. I carefully cut the pants, shirt, and one of the sneakers. These were all attached to the ceiling of the art room to look as if someone was falling through the ceiling. A fall mid-way where just some of the person was through. It was as if you were underwater watching someone fall into a pool...half way.

In my senior year of high school I was asked, along with two other students, to paint a reproduction of the Sistine Chapel's God and Adam on the ceiling of the art room. Scaffolding was brought in and we proceeded to grid and paint the Michelangelo classic. It was huge, perhaps 25 by 8 feet. My senior art project. It came out really well. Being at that rebellious age I had wanted to paint a digital watch on God's wrist. Wisely my art teacher put the nix on that! It lasted in the ceiling of the high school for about 20 years till they tore most of the building down. A plaque on the wall had listed our names as the artists.

At Penn State I would go alone, late at night, into the art building and work on paintings that weren't even assigned. I would just like to go into the studios where the aroma of oil paint hung in the air and sit at a drawing table alone in the room and paint.

Much of the art I do now is utilizing Photoshop and digital art. But there's still that rewarding feel of tactile pen drawing (even on restaurant napkins) and with some good ol' acrylics on a canvas board. I'm even currently working on a dinosaur painting for a children's book my wife wrote. I still love it. If I only had more time.

Did you express your love on monster movies in art classes? I sure did.

Ron Adams 
Ligonier, PA 
April 2026