Here is the drawing "Portrait of Steven L. Sheppard" my reader artist Robert Tracy drew of me as the subject on my wall, for it arrived today!
I chose to have it as a matte finish canvas print, with 1.5" stretcher bars, black sides, sized at 7.625" x 10". The original is right around that size, but one can choose to have a much larger one on the Fine Art America site:
fineartamerica.com/featured/portrait-of ... tracy.html
I also bought a greeting card to see what it looks like. I'll post a comparison of the two next.
This artwork is beyond just me, it's universal, too.
Ayn Rand writes: "The basic purpose of art is not to teach, but to show - to hold up to man a concretized image of his nature and his place in the universe."
No other art work that I have ever seen, does just that, quite like this one. Look at my place in this drawing. A photo of me could not do what is stylized and symbolized in this artwork, and what it says about the artist who'd created this magnificent masterpiece. I cannot imagine of there being any higher tribute to me, or to Man, right now than this drawing. There is absolutely nothing like it.
"[…]the man who puts his own 'I', his standard of value, above all things, and conquers to live as he pleases, as he chooses and as he believes […]" (from the Journal of Ayn Rand)
"His normal state is to be exalted, all the time; he wants all of his life to be high, supreme, full of meaning." (from the Journal of Ayn Rand)
"a man who looked as if he could break through the steel plate of a battleship and through any barrier whatever. It stood like a challenge. It left a strange stamp on one's eyes." (Ayn Rand, The Fountainhead)
One can add text to the greeting cards, up to I think 300 characters. I have many quotes I'd put in the cards myself, those among them.
"Your life, your achievement, your happiness, your person are of paramount importance. Live up to your highest vision of yourself no matter what the circumstances you might encounter. An exalted view of self-esteem is man's most admirable quality." (Ayn Rand, Night of January the 16th)
"Ask yourself whether the dream of heaven and greatness should be left waiting for us in our graves - or whether it should be ours here and now and on this earth.” (Akston, from Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged)
Will others recognize the greatness of this drawing, and the artist who'd created it, here and now, as I do, and say so, or will it go totally unrecognized by you?
"It takes two to make a very great career: The man who is great, and the man - almost rarer - who is great enough to see greatness and say so." (from Ayn Rand's novel, The Fountainhead)
