"Daniel the Artist" one of 12 finalists in VSA natonal competition for emerging artists with disabilities

From the Corpus Christi Caller-Times:

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Daniel Forsythe (pictured) smiled and talked about his award-winning art as he sat on his bedroom floor littered with the colorful abstract pieces.

“One second I do this and this and then I do 3-D,” the 20-year-old said. “Sometimes I mix colors.”

Forsythe, who was born with Down Syndrome, learned last month he is one of 12 finalists in the VSA arts’ national competition “Accelerate” for emerging artists with disabilities.

“I was very excited,” he said. “I was happy.”

His geometric watercolor, pencil and acrylic piece, “Stacked Up,” will be shown in the S. Dillon Ripley Center of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., from Sept. 10 to Jan. 6, said Jennifer Wexler, Visual Arts Manager for VSA arts.

In January it will go on a national art tour of college and university museums and galleries for up to two years, she said.

His second piece, “Plane Crossing,” also was entered in the competition. Although it didn’t make the final cut, the piece will be shown at the John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts in Washington from Sept. 15 to Nov. 1 for National Disability Employment Awareness Month in October, Wexler said.

Forsythe took some art classes at Ray High School but has no extensive training, said his dad, local artist Jim Forsythe. When he took his first class at 16, he already had won an award for Best of Show on Paper in an all-member show at the Art Center of Corpus Christi for a collaborative piece he did with his father.

“Everyone at school knew him as ‘Daniel the Artist,’” his dad said.

Daniel Forsythe’s work includes colorful geometric shapes, black and white leaf-like images in pencil, water color and acrylics.

He has two pieces at the Art Center: “Plane Crossing” and “Yellow and Blue,” which won Best of Works on Paper in the Independence Show for the Fourth of July.

“He just jumps on a piece of paper,” his father said. “Most artists are scared of blank paper, but not Daniel. He starts and it’s just automatic.”