TRAWICK PRIZE LOSERS ANNOUNCED!
To this year's Trawick Prize, I submitted a video summarizing my 25 year journey in art that started in a local wood mill, whereby I drew in between assembling doors on the line. Selected drawings were scattered on my grassy back yard while I told the story where without a studio, I adapted to the fast-paced environment of the factory floor and how the journey towards finding a voice in the visual arts evolved into an intricate multi-displinary, but simplistic composition with a remarkable symmetry not unlike that of a single picture. It took over 2 decades to see the evolving work emerge. I had no subject matter when I mounted that drawing board in the mill I worked -adaptation became my subject matter. I didn't even start with a whole image - the tempopraral constraints of the assembly line dictated that I start with a fragment of a hieroglyph, its origin unbeknownst to me at the time, which I drew repeatedly until it reached its dynamic conclusion, where upon I wondered if the journey was over, but I kept at it, and the work unfolded like a flower, progressing from LINE to SHAPE to FORM to WASH to COLOR to TEXTURE to TIME, over a 25 year journey. There were of course, hurdles - my drawing board was destroyed in the mill, my drawings were tossed to the dumpster (of course I salvaged them), a trailer where they were kept was vandalized, and I have not sold one original from this 25 year journey. But the worst tragedy of all is that those in a position to bring this story to exhibition ignore its virtue over less daring and spirited works. WHERE ARE THE HEROES AND HEROINES IN THE CURATORIAL DEPARTMENTS?! -those with the power to eschew their prejudices, preferences, and lower their political lens, to reach out to an artist with an enlightening and inspiring story about the magic of persevering in the midst of hardship to embrace one's personal myth. It's not like my drawings haven't received critical acclaim as single works -I was awarded the OUTSTANDING DRAWING PRIZE from the DIRECTOR of HARVARD ART MUSEUMS, essentially the premiere drawing museum and traing ground for curators!. My work won one of the few MERIT AWARDS given in the International Show in Summit New Jersey, chosen by Laura Hoptman who worked in the DRAWING Department at MOMA and later at the New Museum of Contemporary Art. Sylvie Fortin, Editor-in-Chief of ART PAPERS, awarded three top $1,000 Prizes in the Madison National 2008, essentially they were akin to splitting the BEST IN SHOW Award three ways - my work won one of those prizes. There's more but the point is made - Why, with the individual drawings receiving praise (except locally) is the story behind them repeatedly rejected. The journey to get here is much more facsinating and cross-cultural than any of the individual works alone. Does heart, soul, and the deeper elements exhibited in an artists' journey not apply in today's art scene? Of course it does. But many curators haven't the insight and perhaps the heart-informed retina to see deeper than the superficial surface further clouded by silk screened politics. Have any of these curators read the work of comparative mythologist, Joseph Campbell, or better yet, understood the composition of the Hero's Journey? Or still better yet, understood how the steps of the Hero's Journey relate to the steps in an artist's journey.
I sent the first round of videos to the Trawick Prize in April and was requested to send additional video as a semi-finalist in June. When received, I got a call that the 2nd DVD was BLANK! Of course I checked the video before sending it and it checked out fine. Thank goodness I had a duplicate copy, which I made copies of and again checked out before sending. I was requested to send images of the actual drawings shown in my 8-part video, titled, "Drawing My Ship In." And I was asked - "If you win, can you display the actual works?, which I responded positively. Days later, I was asked for the measurements of the 10 images, which I supplied. Today, I come home after 12 hours of work to open another rejection letter. How is a story about the dynamic composition of an artist's journey so undesired that it continuously gets shot down while work lacking soul, heart, and spirit, is lavishly honored? And what kind of art story would be most beneficial to the struggling artists in the Great Repression , than an inspiring story of sticking with it through thick and thin and discovering that the journey itself has a COMPOSITION! And it's Beauty is beyond measure. I've seen a lack of spirit in the arts for so many years that I was wondering if many curators had completely lost their vision, or if they ever had one. Or if they were being muscled about by a system that was motivated religiously by prejudice, money, and cronyism. Perhaps those with true insight try but adopt a defeatest attitude and just give up and adjust to the pecking order of the powers that be.
I found on the Artistics Art Ambassadors site an article by Lenny about the TRAWICK PRIZE from the 2008 season: "Depending on who amongst the three jurors is the "leader of the pack" or the guiding hand for the other, will determine who will win the prize." He goes on to state the outcomes depending on which juror "muscles" the others. "I've been on many "art-by-committee" panels and know how they work. As Jose Marti wrote: "I know the monster well, for I have lived in its entrails."
Favortism is nothing new to art. Laura Hoptman has reportably been criticized within MOMA for choosing artists that were her friends and showing favoritism in her selections of artists. Favoritism not only exists in the choosing of artists, but even in the selection of MEDIA - for instance, painting was so ignored, and admittedly so, by the Trawick Prize committee in the first few years, that the Bethesda Painting Award was thus created. Maybe, a Heart, Soul, and Spirit Prize should be created. But, then again, how many would full-heartedly participate, and who would be qualified enough to be on the jury - who would have the developed senses to see the spirit when it was staring one in the face flat and voiceless.
