Guy the Artist

With ballpoint pen as his medium, Guy's work represents the reality of this adage. This former counterfeiter/forger twenty year career ended with a five year forced hiatus in a federal facility. Having aspired to be an artist his entire life, he saw this as an opportunity to become the next Norman Rockwell, allowing the Federal Bureau of Prisons to act as his sponsor since they were feeding him and paying his rent.  
 
His bubble was burst when the officer in charge of the Arts & Crafts Program told Guy that he wasn't allowed to order oil paints or turpentine. The officer taunted: "You're supposed to be an artist - learn to paint with something else." Guy spent the subsequent week in his cell contemplating what he might use as a medium when he noticed an old, grainy photograph in a newspaper. He could see that the image was just dots. help thought to himself: "I can do that ." And he did. In short order he began to approach his drawings as oil paintings, applying his dots of ink in layers, crating depth and rhythm. Guy taught himself to paint with a 25 cent Bic pen. What began as an act of defiance has enabled Guy to fulfill his penchant for detail and definition as perhaps no other medium could. 
 
There have been only two occasions where he has entered his work competitively, and on both occasions his work has won ribbons. Both times, the annual "Corrections on Canvas" show and competition sponsored by the Rockefeller Foundation and held in the New York state Capitol Building. The first year Guy entered he placed third in a field of 900. On his second participation he entered 3 pieces and placed first and second of over 1200 entries. What an achievement!
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