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The ARTIST

Once upon a time I made a living off of my artwork.  I was fairly well known in one small town after winning a series of awards. 

It started with a county fair.  At the urging of my friends, I entered a drawing of my son into the fair, with little to no hope of placing.  Not only did I win an award, but I won the coveted first place.  My art, unbeknownst to me, went on to complete in the Tri-County fair. I had no idea until I went to collect my piece after the country fair was over.  

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Once at the Tri-County, I had plans to go, just to see how well my art was doing without me.  Unfortunately my health got in the way and I remained bedridden for the next several months, trying desperately to keep myself alive while doctor after doctor tried to figure out what was wrong with me.  Again, unbeknownst to me, my art took the first place ribbon.  I was dumbfounded. This time I was notified.  My artwork would go on to the State Fair competition.  I knew there was no way I could win in a state wide contest, but I was beyond honored that it would go that far.  

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Not only did that one drawing take the first place ribbon at the State Fair, but it also received the Gallery Award, meaning that it was picked as the best of the best among all art entries at the State Fair.  As the Gallery Award winner, my artwork was picked to go to the State Fair for competition.  

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My health had suffered greatly in that time.  I'd been seen by ten different doctors before one could finally tell me what was wrong.  The cyst, had it burst, could have killed me instantly.  In an emergency procedure, I finally had my cyst removed, and I began to rebuild my life.  Unfortunately I'd already missed the opportunity to send my artwork off to the World Fair for judging, but I was back on my feet finally and that was enough in that moment.  I was alive.  

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I've never put my artwork into another competition ever again.  I saw no need.  As a novice and fairly new artist, I'd gone farther than I ever could have dreamed.  Anything else would have been a disappointment.  I never meant to do as well as I did, but I'll always be grateful that a dream I didn't even know I had was achieved when I was only 22 years old.  

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These days I don't do a lot of drawing because it takes so terribly long to do anything of the kind of quality I want to produce.  Every now and then the bug might bite and I'll dive headlong into a project and not surface again for weeks.  I still do occasional commissions, but mostly I do it for myself. 



Below is a random sample of both colored pencil art and digital drawings I've done over the years. 

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