Clear Lake artist creates series of Surf Ballroom inspired works

    The Clear Lake Arts Center is sponsoring a special exhibit by artist Jaclyn Garlock.  Included in this exhibit is a recently completed significant series of paintings depicting people in and about the Historical Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake. 
    The title of the exhibit is “Hang 10,” as a brief flicker into the Moon Doggie surfer lingo and because there are 10 paintings.

    The Surf is most famous for the last concert played by Buddy Holly, The Big Bopper and Richie Valens who died tragically in a plane crash following the show. But more than that, the Surf Ballroom and many other similar ballrooms across the Midwest were host to all the big name bands from the 40s, 50, 60s, and 70s to the present. Before bands played to stadium crowds they toured the rural Midwest playing these ballroom venues.  Garlock said she was fortunate to be able to lend a hand in the actual restoration of the entry to the ballroom in 1994 after its purchase by the Snyder family. Their dedication to the Surf has allowed it to keep operating as it always has.
    It is now a museum with both state and national registry recognition; and in 2009 was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame’s Landmark Series.
    Garlock’s larger than life paintings are dedicated to the many performers who played and people who attended shows at the Surf making it the icon that it is.  Though the Surf is most “famous” for the Buddy Holly concert, these paintings are about the Surf itself, the building and the meaning it’s had in so many people’s lives from long before and long after the “day the music died,” she said.
    Garlock is a lifelong artist who grew up in Montana and Colorado and has called Clear Lake home since 1968.  During her career - Read More Via e-Edition