Antioch artist creates works for ’23 Blast’

By Frank Abderholden | @abderholden

Lake County News-Sun

Antioch artist Dennis Downes is ready for his red-carpet moment Thursday in Lexington, Kentucky at the premiere of “23 Blast,” a new film about a high school quarterback who lost his vision but rejoined the team as its center.

Downes got the invitation to the premiere because four of his paintings and a small bronze sculpture he created appear in the hospital scene where friends of Travis Freeman come to learn the star quarterback went blind after he got a fever from a rare form of bacterial meningitis.

One painting didn’t make the cut, but the other three and bronze sculpture of a Native American trail marker tree make a dramatic appearance on the big screen. Downes, himself, got a few seconds of screen time as well, walking through the hospital waiting room as the camera focuses in on the actors.

Read the full story here.