Paul Dorr - Screen Painter / Teacher

Many other kids and I on a small street not too far from Riverside Park loved to play catchers and run, allot of the time we ran around this car, I mean many times.

Mr. and Mrs. E. (lets call them) were these sweet older folks that lived across from this lamp post / car. They would park their beautiful antique car right under the lamp post directly across from their front door. Their front door so happens to have a beautiful hand painted screen that provided privacy for their home. 

If you remember playing catchers as a child, there had to be a "home- base" and often the lamp post was it since we were under 11 years old at the time with many limitations on how far from our homes we could venture.

Often Mr. E or Mrs. E would be standing directly behind that beautiful painted screen waiting for one of us kids to get anywhere near their car. As soon as we heard their voices we would look directly at that screen, listen, and then run away. So, my first and early story with screen paintings was that I grew up on a small street in Baltimore that contained many Form stone fronts with painted screens.

Safe to say I looked directly into this particular screen many times for the first 10 years of my life as the owners yelled my way. I will not forget that painted screen or the folks that lived there. Now being much older, I understand why they loved this car and like them I appreciate painted screens.

Meet Tom, One of the all time - Master Screen Painters, all around Great Guy. The reason I paint window Screens :-)

I began working with Tom at Baltimore City Transit & Traffic in 1985.

Tom always had a stack of Photographs of his painted screens in his office. I would thumb thru them when ever I was in his office. Lots of Red Roof Bungalows, ducks and swans.

Tom painted all the window screens on my parents home in Brooklyn.

When Tom was ready to retire we talked about him teaching me screen painting. After only a few quick classes in his basement I was ready and hooked.

RIP Tom  

Sadly, we lost Tom, beloved master screen painter on April 4, 2018.  Tom Lipka, his teachings, his art, and his life-long dedication and enthusiasm for screen painting will be sorely missed.  Farewell Tom. We hope you are painting beautiful colors across the sky.

 Baltimore's painted screens - CBS News