The Resurrection of my Art Career

Maria, Alyssa and I went to the Sayville Summer Fest last year and had a great time.  They have rides, food and an art show and people selling art and all kinds of crafts.  We even won a flat screen TV at the Cablevision booth's free raffle.  This year we went back again and took my parents with us.  We had a great time, didn't win a TV this year, but Alyssa had tons of fun on the giant slide with Grandpa and rode the "alligator choo choo", her first roller coaster at the age of 2 and a half.  We started going to NYC once a month this year and spent a lot of time in Central Park.  At the art show I saw a beautiful piece by a local artist named Sandy Geraci of Central Park in the winter and bought a print for us to hang at home.  I spoke with her and her husband and was very inspired by her story - she lost her job a couple of years ago and was very depressed.  Her husband told her to go out and paint and enjoy herself and now her career is starting to take off and she's much happier.  I met and talked with a few of the other artists, one of whom, Mario Politi told me that he teaches painting and drawing.  I did a google search and found some videos of him doing a demo for a local art group called 'The Wet Paints Studio Group.  I emailed them and didn't hear back for a month (they take the month of August off as a lot of people are on vacation.  They got back to me and I joined them at their next meeting.  At that meeting I met a lot of great and talented people.  Someone there mentioned an upcoming art show at Our Lady of the Island Shrine in Manorville NY - A shrine my mother had been to and told me about previously.  The show was looking for works that are spiritual or having to do with nature.  I entered two pieces into the show, my favorite painting (the one of the samurai on my business card) and a new painting called 'The Resurrection' 

I was playing around blending colors, painting and using a paper towel to take some paint off and trying to come up with an idea and saw a face in the painting.  It brought back memories of the Shroud of Turin and Veronica's Veil, two Catholic relics which according to scripture show the image of Christ.  Veronica was a woman who wiped the blood and sweat of Jesus with her veil as he was on his way to Golgotha to be crucified and when she looked at the cloth the blood and sweat made an image of Christ's face on the veil.  Those of you who saw the film, 'Forest Gump' saw a parody of this when Forest is running and wipes the mud off his face onto a yellow t-shirt and leaves behind the image of a happy face.  The Shroud of Turin was the death shroud Christ was wrapped in after he died.  Depending on what you believe, when he resurrected from the dead the energy of the resurrection burned an image of his entire body onto the Shroud.  A was going to write a novel or a movie about the Shroud a few years back and did a lot of research, but I never finished it.  I painted in the throrns and hair around the face as well as a representation of light energy.  I entered the piece into the show - I had my mother drop it off for me while I was in Boston for the week for work.  I was supposed to go to the show on Saturday, October 2nd, but I got stuck in Boston for the weekend because of the bad weather.  My wife Maria and my daughter and my mother went to the show in my stead to see the paintings and they noticed a blue ribbon on mine - I had won 1st place!!!  They immediately called and texted me in Boston.  I was so excited and happy.  I couldn't believe it.  I felt so validated that I had made the right decision to start painting and drawing again and it was very symbolic and a 'resurrection' of my fine art career.  It's very strange how things work out - how the path you live on leads you - whether it's fate, luck or all God's plan.