This archival class, all thirteen ladies, are the result of Craig scouring through some 175,000 back-and-white negatives and photographs in the Library of Congress; a study that was guided by photographers from 1935-1944 and funded by the Farm Securities Administration, the Office of War Information and other agencies to document American life during this era.
These young beauties in their individually patterned gingham dresses fill the left side of their class portrait. Everything about them exudes this generation, the Silent Generation, born between 1920 and 1948. As children they were to be seen and not heard. They would live through the Great Depression and World War II. These girls would be the graduating class of this generation and their faces say it all.
After finding the right subjects for inspiration, Craig drew them out by hand and painted them together into what would perhaps be the day of their Senior Portrait, almost as if the camera were about to take the picture. Incorporating elements of folk art and surrealism, the result is powerful and delightful. The colors are mostly muted, much like their era, with the exception of a single girl in the middle wearing a blue floral-painted dress which somehow solidifies the entire work, drawing the viewers eye first to her before exploring the rest of the painting.