Monday, February 05, 2007

My drawing "Samurai" wins Merit Award!

I was notified Feb. 1st, that I had won a Merit Award @ the 21st International Juried Show. Three were given, plus a Best in Show, and a Photography and a Watercolor award. So, my little, black and white drawing (that's been through 20 plus years of style developement), has competed against large paintings and sculptures worldwide, and won something. Germany, This is my Lucky Break. I knew it would be. I put an image of the drawing that won on my dashboard...before it won. I would pull it to my eye as shards of light hit it. It made me feel good. Really good. I felt I had won a battle. I did. I bet Goliath. Nineteen years ago I submitted to 2 International Competitions in New York and received a Certificate of Excellence for Drawing and for Works on Paper. That was when I was still stuck on this one image which I was compelled to draw until it had reached its dynamic conclusion. I actually felt that this was it. That I could not go any further. But something made me do so. I held on to two lines I learned in the factory while mass-producting doors: The more you do something,the better you get & Practice makes perfect. It made me nuts. I kept drawing, thinking I'd reach a breakthrough. It got so bad, that I considered the effects giving up would have on me. What did I have without this drawing? I had nothing. A husk of a person. A shell. A vast emptiness. Worse than the death of art - the death of an artist who carried a torch, who had a pumping heart, a soulful voice, and a soaring spirit. Paper saved me. I cried on it like a million sheets of kleenex. Year after year after year. I don't think anybody thought I was anything but completely insane. Why? Because I held on to a dream. Because the blue sky beckoned me. Because I believed that the world was my oyster. That days could be Banner days