Then there was a subsequent call on Wednesday, October 20, when she informed me that owing to a miscalculation she discovered on the judging sheets, I was entirely off the prize list. I am aware through experience that the best of us cannot win all the time. So it is not the fact that I did not win which peeved me, it was the fact that she did indeed call me and told me I had won. She went so far as to ask me for the English translation of the drawing she said had won the bronze – La Pareja (the couple). I challenge her to refute these stated facts. How ludicrous were my statements? How ridiculous were the assessments I published? Who in Guyana has the international achievements and reputation I have?
There was also a statement about international practices in visual art and design competitions. There too, I am the one with the experience. Of the 255 international awards I have received, three are gold medals, one is silver and a bronze. And in 1985 in the United States of America I was given the position of National Juror beginning with the National Society of Painters in Casein and Acrylics 33rd International Annual. Again I say, I have the experience with regard to international practices in visual art competitions, and the procedures by which they are judged.
All my assessments are supported by the fact of my international reputation, so when I firmly said that the top two winning entries were not drawings, but paintings, I knew what I was saying.
The Curator also states there was no catalogue. I must inform her that a catalogue is a complete list of items arranged in chronological order, and when the awards were finally decided upon, they were in chronological order, even if not documented. I have fabricated nothing; the judges were asked to tally their total in pencil. She states too that my reaction was fired by a sense of grievance, and she has no doubt about her assessment. She has no right to say that.
My list of achievements is long and well documented. I am in Guyana not to find fault, but to pass on my knowledge. If some people in the country cannot use my expertise, I will keep it to myself until I get tired and leave. I have left the country many times before, and every time my departure was a response to the attitude within the populace. I sense it is going to happen again.
I never said the matter was publicly advertised, but when she called and told me the results, the matter was advertised. Yes, she did inform me not to tell anyone, but that does not refute the fact that she told me.
She also mentioned that I had a short-lived expectation of a competition prize. As I mentioned earlier, no one should expect to win all the time. But this fault is in the fact she told me I had.
Yours faithfully,
Jorge Bowenforbes
