When I was thirteen I entered a contest with General Motors. (Hold that thought.)
In the fifties there was an art school that used Norman Rockwell as the poster boy to draw attention to an ad featuring the profiled face of an attractive female. The face was slightly changed every month but if there was a model involved it was certainly the same model with each and every edition. I entered the contest every month. I could draw a good likeness today from memory.
I won an honorable mention one time which promised to get me a small discount on a rather expensive weekly lesson mailed to me and quickly graded, corrected and returned the day following their attention to my progress or the lack thereof. I failed to acknowledge the gift in favor of yet another challenge.
During this same period of time General Motors took out a full-page in Motor Trend as I recall and announced a contest for best idea for an entirely new automobile design. It never occurred to me that this was an offer to professionals; to me it was simply another Famous Artists School contest.
It’s late now and I want to meet the midnight deadline on this and three other blogs which await my attention.. Tomorrow I’ll tell you the part where the thirteen year old introvert kid with only the most basic math skills changed the world.
