Lexington

The San Mateo County Fair is held next to a racetrack and offered a prize for the best artwork depicting thoroughbred horses, and they had a new category in 1996 for Computer Art. They needed the title about a month before the piece was due. Since I was going for a visit to Lexington, Kentucky, I chose the title "Lexington" figuring I could find some image with thoroughbreds at the race horse capital of the country. I took a number of pictures there, but did not settle on this image of a thoroughbred colt racing through a field until the night before it was due. Then I stayed up until the early hours re-coloring and repositioning the horses. I have always paid homage to the deadline muse.

I would have to call this one of my more successful pieces as it was sold at the show, won Best Computer Art, Best Thoroughbred Horse (Other Media), and a full year's scholarship at the Academy of Art College in San Francisco.

I am a confessed academiaholic and had been debating about taking time out to go back to school full time. Sometimes life has a way of forcing our choices upon us, and says "put up or shut up". Sooooo, I dusted off the old schoolbooks and now have a Master of Fine Arts Degree to go with my Master of Philosophy Degree from New Zealand.

All images and text © copyright by James Stanley Daugherty.