|
|
|
Jerry’s given up jobs, his home and belongings, to paint 40 of the holiest sites on the planet A keen painter since childhood, artist Jerry Gordon under-took a mammoth
task that was to change his life.
"It has cost me everything," he said. "So far, it has taken 10 years of my life. I'm 40 now, have sold my house, car and all my possessions to do this." “It was a gradual letting go of everything most people cherish, a regular Income, a routine, steady lifestyle, getting married and having a family.” He estimates that, including loss of earnings, his quest has cost him up to £100,000. “1 may have lost materially, but I don’t regret a minute of it,” said Jerry. |
“My advice to everybody is follow
your dream, you’ll never regret it.”
Jerry is now planning a full exhibition of his 6 ft. by 4 ft. canvasses in London for new millennium. "You cannot fail to be impressed by the lengths people go to to honour their spiritual beliefs," he said. “Hindu, Buddhist, Muslim, Christian, whatever the monument, these are beautiful buildings. I wanted to bring them all together in one exhibition for the year 2000. “We’ve all had enough of the mayhem that’s been caused in the world and I wanted to contribute to its harmony for the new millennium." Jerry has travelled from America to Russia, India to Tahiti, and has been lucky to survive some of his adventures. On a visit to Istanbul he only narrowly missed being blown apart by a terrorist bomb. “For some reason, I stopped to have my shoes shined,” said Jerry. “That was something I’d never done before, but it saved my life. The blast killed several people and injured scores of others. "I was blown off my feet but the fireball didn’t reach me,” continued Jerry. Another scary moment was when an armed Mujahedin rebel ran up to him as he was sketching in Shrinigar, Kishmir. “There was a lot of tension there at the time,” said Jerry. “Shrinigar was a city under siege. |
A curfew had been imposed and, as
night fell, you could hear gunfire from the Old City, and see tracer bullets
burn across the sky.
“Westerners had been kidnapped and were being held hostage so, when this guy ran up to me. I thought, ‘This is it’.” But his luck held. The man asked him to deliver a message to President Clinton and the Prime Minister, explainin3 the plight of the Kashrniris. Jerry is now up to date with his paintings, having completed 25 of the 40 envisaged works. They range from the Sikh Temple at Amritsar to the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem, from St. Peter’s in Rome to the Pyramids in Egypt The final part of his odyssey will take him to Central and Southern America to record Aztec, Inca and Mayan temples, then to China. As his deadline of the year 2000 approaches, Jerry is now trying to find some sort of sponsorship. “I’ve financed all the trips myself and have now completely run out of money,” he said. “I’m looking for a job and sponsorship.” If you can help, telephone Jerry on 01253 862296.
|