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In December my wife, Nancy and I, with our close friends, fellow artist Walt Maes and his wife Toby, attended a musical at this beautiful theater. Instead of the usual winter snow, it was a rainy day in Chicago, and this is how I portrayed it.

As one of the first motion picture palaces whose décor was inspired by the Far East, Chicago’s Oriental Theatre opened to much fanfare on May 8, 1926. The theater eventually fell into disrepair and was closed to the public in 1981. Rescued in 1996, Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley announced that the Oriental would be restored to its original grandeur for the presentation of live stage musicals. It was renamed the Ford Center for the Performing Arts in 1997.

(I have also painted the Chicago Theater and Milwaukee’s Oriental movie theater)