by Donato

I’ll keep this post short as I am preparing for a convention this weekend, Lunacon, in Rye New York.

Many of you have heard by now about the Spectrum 18 Award winners, if not, Irene Gallo has graciously posted the list online at Tor.com. One of my fellow bloggers, Dan Dos Santos landed his first Silver Medal (congrats Dan!) and I too was a very lucky recipient of a Silver in the Institutional category for my work ‘Mind Machine’ created for a gallery show last year at Distinction Gallery in Escondido, CA . I greatly appreciate the recognition knowing all the talented artists that submitted amazing images for this annual, and was quite shocked to find out I had such an honor. My point is not about the medal, but to build upon my last post, which was ‘Doing it for Free’. If you haven’t guessed, by now, the award winner was one of those pieces ‘Done for free’. A work which I felt the need to paint because it felt right and knowing I would likely never receive a commercial commission to justify it’s creation. Mind Machine was inspired by a quote by a brilliant thinker-

“To myself I am only a child playing on the beach, while vast oceans of truth lie undiscovered before me.”
-Sir Isaac Newton


So keep your hand where your heart is, and follow your dreams…they might just come true.

P.s. Here’s another piece created for fun and the love of Tolkien which will make its debut at Lunacon.