‘This Blows’ by Henry (Hank) Novak

After last years truly gorgeous crayon drawing of tomatoes, by then 10-year old grain elevator neighbor Tinca Joyner, we received a greater number of submissions from younger entrants this year.  And like Tinca’s ‘Tomatoes’, one of these submissions blew the jury away both in visual and conceptual content, truly expressing imagination on the topic Transport(ation).  ‘This Blows’ by 12-year old Omaha native Hank Novak is a simple pen drawing of a dandelion on a vibrant yellow background. Cropped perfectly to interact with the gap in the silos, thus sending the seeds blowing into the Omaha horizon, the image was furthermore a strong jury selection because of Hanks explanatory poem about the innovative movement of dandelion seeds:

THIS BLOWS

Dandelion seeds
Flying everywhere,
Helicopters and airplanes
Racing in the air.

I see car commercials
Almost all the time,
Their MPG’s are a revolution
But sometimes I wonder what
Transportation would be like
If we did not have evolution.

Henry Alois Novak is an artist living and working in Omaha, Nebraska. His chosen medium is a black pen and a blank piece of paper.  Hank has created and drawn many characters, most notably Chap Clapper, Cube Cat,  Octo-Pig, Cock-a-Doodle-Doofus, and The Bean Series.  Hank is a 6^th grader and is currently working on unlocking the third galaxy in the seventh world of Super Mario Galaxy Two. Hanks parents, Nancy and Paul Novak, are now regretting a dollar for dollar match they have promised Hank and his twin brother for anything they earn on their own, encouraging them to be entrepreneurial.  It seems Hank’s artist stipend will be going much farther than the other artists.