Tom Vincent, Best in Show!

My son, Tom Vincent, wins yet another art award!

Pardon my pride, but Tom was awarded “Best in Show” for his oil-on-wood-panel work titled “Ashton Taylor”. This was a juried art show for students of the College of Southern Nevada (CSN), and it included a $250 prize… wow!

Some of you know that there is a vein of artistic talent running through the Vincent family. As a young child in New Hampshire I discovered a couple of pencil drawings created by my father, Raymond Vincent, who had died when I was just three years old. Later, after the family relocated to Las Vegas, I would doodle in spiral notebooks as a way of amusing myself to pass the time. One day my mother’s friend challenged me to draw, or copy, a line drawing. I was able to do that fairly easily, and that small event spurred the cultivation of my father’s artistic heritage.

Nick was the first to display advanced artistic talent in elementary school which he cultivated through his high school years. That artistic ability coupled with his musical accomplishments (7 Foot Midget years) earned him the “Most Talented Senior” honors at Cimarron-Memorial High School (CMHS). He now plies his creative talents as interactive web designer for EatDrinkMedia in Las Vegas. His job requires him to merge his artistic side with his logical technology side to create some truly imaginative but useful websites.

Doug was the next to enjoy the hand-eye coordination of an artist. He attended art classes in high school and was recognized for his early work by his teacher, Ms. Lisa (Lyle) Hinricksen. I recall one evening before Doug was to leave town for a while that he brought out an uncompleted work from high school; a portrait of the Spanish artist Salvador Dali. Using Tom’s supplies, the entire family seemed to thrust themselves into the project as Doug completed the work as a way preparing himself for the journey ahead. Perhaps he will find his way back to that creative energy in the future.

As a middle-schooler, Tom showed interest in architectural drawings, and I thought I might have a budding architect in the family (possibly still do…). Like Doug, Tom also studied under Ms. Hinricksen. Tom took four years of high school art, earning himself the first ever “Senior Artist of the Year” award at CMHS, and like Nick was voted “Most Talented” by his classmates. Tom’s talent has really matured as he continues to pursue the arts in college. He has already been recognized several times by his CSN instructors, and the art show he organized for himself and another student achieved one of the highest ever attendance figures according to the gallery curator. Since this is a fishing blog, however, I do have to say that my favorite work by Tom is the portrait of me and the five-to-six-pound Henderson Springs rainbow trout that was released.

I see the family talent in Brian and Evan, too. They just haven’t cultivated it the way their older brothers have. Perhaps it is brotherly competition, or the will to create their own identity, but they have chosen other endeavors to excel in which are uniquely their own. Maybe later they will seek out the talent that came from the grandfather they never knew.

But, for today, it is Tom’s limelight as he basks in the glow of his CSN Student Art Show award.

KUDOS TO TOM!