About

About Glenn Drawdy

Being born and growing up in middle Georgia was full of surprises. “Award Winning”. That was what my mama said when I was 8 years old and won a national restaurant’s art contest. That was my first memory and success of being artistic.

In school I practiced my creative side by doodling on the back of my notebooks and on my book-covers. I took art in the 8th grade where I learned how to use pen and ink, carve linoleum into print blocks, and tie-dye t-shirts. When I attempted signup for the 9th grade art, I discovered that the teacher had closed the class and refused to allow me or any other students in her class.

What does a 14 year old “award winning” teenager do when they are turned away from art class? They jump full steam ahead into music and accounting and forget all about their dreams of art. At least that’s what I did. In high school, the largest high school in the nation at that time, I took classes before school started, during lunch period, and after school ended. I worked hard and took every music and accounting/business class my school offered plus some. To me, I was successful. Successful enough with my bassoon to be offered a music scholarship to a private university! However, I elected instead to pursue accounting and the girl who had captured my young heart to Augusta Georgia.

During school I worked for UPS to unload big brown tractor trailers, wash big brown trucks, load big brown trucks, drive big brown trucks, and deliver customer packages around Augusta Ga. and Aiken S.C. Before marring my high school sweetheart I majored in accounting and minored in business administration at Augusta College (affectionately known as “Harvard on the Hill”) and USC in Columbia South Carolina. Just before college graduation I was promoted into accounting management at the UPS General offices in Columbia. After graduating from college I continued working for UPS in several management positions while moving around to several cities and states. We eventually moved to the Atlanta suburbs where I started climbing the corporate ladder while working in the accounting and technology arena for several Fortune 50 ranked companies. From metro Atlanta I worked and traveled extensively in Europe, from coast to coast in the U.S., in Canada, and, my favorite, the Caribbean.

Several years ago as my company’s VP of Technical Services I had flown to the West Coast for a meeting with the CTO of Hewlett-Packard. Prior to the meeting I experienced a medical emergency that nearly cost me my life. During the lengthy rehabilitation I was forced to discover my surroundings in new ways. Partially paralyzed, vision irreversibly effected with nystagmus, with an endless number of symptoms, considered 100% handicapped, and begrudging retired, I began the arduous journey to discover my new normal.

Although I saw the world with a bold and new found appreciation, my days soon turned into nights with nothing seeming to replace the accomplishments I once experienced in the corporate world. Deeply patriotic, introverted, newly left handed, with challenging vision, and bored beyond belief…I eventually decided to give art another try.

I received a set of watercolors from my daughter-in-love and decided to see if I could use them with my left hand, since my “award winning” right hand was now paralyzed. At first I struggled as I attempted to control the colors in much the same way as I had controlled accounting and technology throughout my former career. My life up to that point had been a series of zeros and ones, pros and cons, rate and ranks, balanced and unbalanced, on and offs, or yes and no. Painting and it’s endless hues presented a deep contrast to accounting where a 1 is always a 1 and technology where a computer system is either on or off.

After my life hit rock bottom and moving to the North Georgia mountains I decided to give acrylic paint a try. Because I had already experienced the insurmountable wall of failure I (along with my wife/supportive caregiver) gathered enough supplies to complete my very first painting. It was Abe Lincoln.

When he dried, I was nervous but relieved! When I revealed him to my wife she agreed with me that he actually looked like Lincoln! I started the research for a second painting, George Washington. I tried to expound on the things I’d learned and soon started painting him.

The originals of Lincoln and Washington now hang on a wall in my home constantly reminding me that rock bottom would be my solid foundation! I ultimately decided to concentrate on presenting the Faces of subjects that had made an impact on my way of life. As a result, I normally focus on the Faces of historical subjects with a few non-historical ones thrown in to keep things interesting. My use of vibrant and dynamic colors is premeditated and a deviation from the norm. I use vibrant colors instead of the traditional hues normally seen in portraiture. Although I continue to experiment and learn, I have filed up endless sketchbooks and waste baskets fine tuning my style and non-dominate one-handed technique (which by the way I call “figurative abstract expressionism”). 

I paint my subjects in the same way as they touched our world. Boldly, intensely, vividly, brilliantly, non-conforming and in most cases…with total disregard for the status quo. In the current climate where many want to erase the relevancy of our past, I hope to preserve it. We all stand on the shoulders of those who came before us regardless of their achievements, human flaws, or our current personal views. My subjects were bold and non-traditional with complex stories and contradictions that affect how people appraise them today. Their colorful representations hopefully capture the viewers imagination and invites them to see the subjects and their contribution with new eyes.

Each of my paintings has a story of its own. For example with George Washington I used a lot of cherry color in reference to his infamous cherry tree catastrophe. In Abe Lincoln I chose to use vibrant colors in reference to how he lived life. In Lady Liberty I used a palette knife to smear in paint colors like stale political promises and to put in the sharp edged lines to represent the despair and differences of many American. When I painted Abraham Lincoln again I used a similar color scheme to what I had seen in the DC Comic books that I had read as a 15 year old at the Tenneco Gas Station near my home. When I painted Ronald Reagan I used the colors of the Jelly Beans he ate while at the White House while I depicted his face and hair contours. The Melting Pot was painted using the skin colors of the racial makeup of the crew that worked to present her to to the world. And finally when I painted Theodore Roosevelt’s glasses it was to pay homage to the work he did preserving this country’s vast wilderness and new National Parks. If you look at the skin color behind his spectacles you will see: purple (purple mountains majesties), dark yellow (amber waves of grain), blue (from sea to shining sea), and red (above the fruited plain). My hope though is that each painting will mean something personally different to everyone!

Painting has become an outlet, an activity which forces me to slow down and focus. When I’m finally done drawing, opening tubes of paint with my one working hand and teeth, and painting with my non-award winning hand (and sometimes teeth), I can roll back and feel a sense of accomplishment. I would fill up the walls of my home with my paintings if my wife didn’t step in. I barter away my completed works to her and with a clean easel I start researching my next painting. She then offers the Faces to others.

She offers most pieces FOR SALE, others she retains. Some for a short time while others I think are forever. Message her for info and potential commissions! Prices for originals and prints are on this site.

PS: For the record: As the 8 year old winner of the restaurant’s art contest, I received an inexpensive Swiss Made non-waterproof wrist watch. Don’t ask me how I know it wasn’t waterproof…I’m still upset.

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