Contest: Henry "Harry" Winston Jerome 27 x 24 Canvas

Gylliayn Patrick is a local Vancouver artist who has generously donated a painting (est. value $300) for us to give away to one lucky reader. The painting is of Harry Jermome a Canadian track and field runner.

To enter the contest, simply retweet this link http://bit.ly/aztOai @vancitybuzz and @GylliaynArt or comment on this post with your Google account (so we can contact you). Do both to double your chances.  Contest closes Tuesday (tomorrow) at 9pm. We’ll announce the winner on Wednesday.

Continue reading for some information on Gylliayn and Harry Jerome.

Gylliayn grew up in a technical family, her dad is an entrepreneur who owned a company building computers.
Funny, he had a booth at Expo ’86! Same place where the Olympic Village is.  She ended up getting  her electronic certificate to work along side her dad (and to borrow the car). Later, after digging deep, found that art was more her forte. Combining the technical side with the creative side, she discovered a  tablet and a stylus. Using a stylus, she started to create pictures of Vancouver. One of the first ones was of the Vancouver Convention Centre. Shortly after that, Darcy Rezac, The Managing Director of the Vancouver Board of Trade used this image of her convention centre  as his  personal thank you card.

She uses her Art to bring the focus closer to the front.  She wants to keep the focus on THE object as The object. To illuminate background noise. Bring it forward since the object is the star of the canvas or post card.

She enjoys mixing business  with art. Having the freedom to do what she likes, she wishes to be able to contribute a solution for business owners in Vancouver  by placing their logos on post cards on her Olympic Art Post Card series for you to hand out as a keep sake. Also, offering a commission for the sale of her Canvas Work.

She loves Vancouver and loves being apart of the 2010 Winter Games. She has a Private Art Gallery Downtown Vancouver where she spends most her time and host Gallery Cocktail Mixers where you can mingle and enjoy her work!

For more information on Gylliayn’s work check out her website. Her 2010 work is also part of our Vancouver 2010 Guide.

Now here is some information on Harry Jerome, who’s statue sits along the seawall in Stanley Park:

Henry “Harry” Winston Jerome OC (September 30, 1940 – December 7, 1982) was a Canadian track and field runner. He was the grandson of John Howard, a railway porter who represented Canada in the 1912 Summer Olympics. Athletic career He competed in college for Bill Bowerman at the University of Oregon. He competed for Canada in the 1960, 1964, and 1968 Summer Olympics, winning 100 metre bronze in 1964. He also won the gold in the 1966 British Empire and Commonwealth Games and the 1967 Pan American Games.

During his career, Jerome set a total seven world records, including tying the 100 metres in 10.2, 10.1 and finally 10.0 seconds in 1960, tying a record established a month earlier by Germany’s Armin Hary. He continued to sprint successfully until the late 1960s, despite suffering an injury so severe at the Perth Commonwealth Games in 1962 that doctors initially believed he would never walk again? [edit] Post-athletic career After retiring from athletics in 1969, he was invited by Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau to help create Canada’s new Ministry of Sport. Jerome held a number of senior positions in the ministry but resigned over the government’s cancellation of a large-scale public-private partnership he had negotiated with Kellogg’s to promote youth participation in athletics.

Born in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, he moved to North Vancouver at age 12. In 1970 he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada. Harry Jerome died of a brain aneurysm in December 1982, at the age of 42. His sister, Valerie Jerome, was also an Olympian who competed for Canada at the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome.[1] In 1984, the Labatts International Track Classic Pre-Olympic meet was renamed the Harry Jerome International Track Classic. It has become a prestigious track and field meet held annually at Swangard Stadium in Burnaby, British Columbia – is named in Jerome’s honour.

The Harry Jerome Sports Complex in North Vancouver, a block from North Vancouver High School where he first went out from track in 1958 and the Harry Jerome Sports Centre, home to the Burnaby Velodrome, in Burnaby, British Columbia is named after Jerome, as are the weight room at his Alma Mater the University of Oregon and the track and field stadium in Prince Albert. The Stanley Park sea wall in his native Vancouver is graced with a 9-foot bronze statue of him. The annual Harry Jerome Awards, the national awards dinner for Canada’s black community organized by the Black Business and Professionals Association (BBPA), is named after him. In 2001 he was inducted into Canada’s Walk of Fame.

VancityBuzz.com