These are some of the drawings that I did as a fundraiser for the Sonoma Ballet Conservatory in early 1993 - there were almost a couple of hundred of them! I exhibited about 30 of them at the Chevrier's Presidio Gallery in Sonoma, and they all sold out on opening night!
I used some of these in 1994 or 1995 to apply for a studio at the Torpedo Factory.
I was rejected, and one of the reasons given for the rejection was that the drawings were "clearly copies of Degas' works."
I was furious that someone's lack of art history knowledge had disqualified my application, but later I realized that whoever that erroneous and anonymous juror had also taught me an unintended lesson: there are some subjects in art (in this case ballerinas) that are so imprinted into the collective mind as coming from a particular artist (in this case Degas), that the subject has been signed off into eternity as not to be re-done by anyone else!
That was a harsh lesson to learn, but a very valuable one!
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