Last Dance

by Julien Tomasello

“I am an American, multi-media artist. My collage work fuses personal experiences as an LGTBQ+, gender-fluid person with narratives from the literature, music, film, art, and other expressions of culture I absorbed as a young person during the 1980's and 1990's. My diptych collage, "Last Dance" depicts a boy who has snuck away from his home in the middle of the night with his dog. Together, they venture into the dark and beautiful Southern California desert. The boy, wearing pajamas and his mother's high-heeled slides, climbs onto a rock and begins to sing Donna Summer's disco hit, "Last Dance". Magically, the desert moon is changed into a shimmering disco ball, wild horses become colorful unicorns, and the animals of the desert gather to become an audience for the boy who is transformed into a beloved pop star. My collage is inspired by an iconic scene from the 1978 film, "Thank God It’s Friday". In the film, Donna Summer, playing aspiring singer Nicole Sims, becomes an instant star after performing her song, “Last Dance” under a shimmering disco ball and surrounded by beautiful people. As a little boy, I secretly performed this scene many times (wearing my mother’s high-heeled slides and with my dog as the audience) while dreaming of transformation and unconditional love and acceptance.”