Trenton Doyle Hancock was selected to receive the 2013 Greenfield Prize at the Hermitage Artist Retreat. Why Trenton?
To get to the answer, let me backtrack to the founding of the prize for a minute. The prize was created by Bob Greenfield and me over the summer of 2008. Funded by the Greenfield Foundation, now of Philadelphia, the prize was the vision of Bob, patriarch of the Foundation. I got to work with his vision, and translate it into practical terms and scale it to a level that it would meet the goals of the prize.
In going through some old emails, I came across this one from Bob about the goal of the prize.
An artist may merit our support simply on the basis of his/her ability to create a work of artistic merit, even though not socially significant, or of social significance even though short of the top in artistic merit. Our objective is impact, artistic, or social, or both.
Whether you connect with Trenton’s work or not, it’s work that is powerful in its authenticity. It’s real. And it’s really Trenton. Deeply so. And the work derives its enormous impact from this uniqueness.
While we lost Bob Greenfield this year, it’s my job to carry forward the vision along with Joni Greenfield on the Foundation board. Trenton’s work is what Bob was talking about when he wrote “Our objective is impact, artistic, or social, or both.” His work embodies the values that drove Bob to create the prize – work that pushes forward, intrepid, authentic, and fearless. And this is why Trenton is the right choice for the 2013 Greenfield Prize at the Hermitage Artist Retreat.
To see more of Trenton’s work follow this link:
http://www.jamescohan.com/artists/trenton-doyle-hancock/
You can see a video of Trenton speaking about his work here: