Limelight

Decided to try a slightly different colour palette before embarking on my painting for our kitchen area. I had just finished watching RUSH: Beyond the Lighted Stage and while I always liked Rush, I never called myself a Rush Fan. Watching this film made me remember things from my teenage and young adult days that were inextricably linked to Rush songs. One of these was ‘Limelight’. There were a number of memories that I have that when I think of them, this song is playing, either on the radio in the actual memory or as a mental soundtrack.

I tried to capture that song and the feeling I get when I listen to it, and when I think of those times long ago that are linked to this song. I’m not sure I really like this painting but then again, not all my memories were ones I can enjoy having. Maybe that means I nailed this one perfectly.


“Living in the limelight
The universal dream
For those who wish to seem
Those who wish to be
Must put aside the alienation
Get on with the fascination
The real relation
The underlying theme

Living in a fish eye lens
Caught in the camera eye
I have no heart to lie
I can’t pretend a stranger
Is a long-awaited friend

All the world’s indeed a stage
And we are merely players
Performers and portrayers
Each another’s audience
Outside the gilded cage”

-RUSH, ‘Limelight’ from Moving Pictures 1981