December 26, 2020 | BY AAGD STAFF
Exonerated in 2018 after serving 27-years in prison for a murder he did not commit, Valentino Dixon never imagined his work of art would end up being purchased by former First Lady Michelle Obama as a Christmas gift for her husband, President Barack Obama.
Valentino’s horrific imprisonment story was recently retold in a segment by Bryant Gumble on the HBO Real Sports this past October. As they say, you never know who’s watching, well among the viewers of this segment was the former First Lady, Michelle Obama, who was personally moved by the story of Valentino’s case.
What followed was a phone call to Dixon from Michelle’s assistant, asking about an original drawing which Valentino had created of the 12th hole at Augusta National, the first he had drawn since being released from lockup at the Attica Correctional Facility near Buffalo, N.Y.
The telephone call was also surreal because Dixon’s mother had been a poll worker during the 2008 election in which President Obama, a middle-handicapper golf enthusiast, was elected. Moreover, it was his mom’s first time ever volunteering in a civic capacity.
“When I was in my six-by-eight-foot prison cell, I was drawing nonstop, 10 hours a day, never taking a day off. When I got out, I wondered would I have the same discipline?” said Dixon, who had never yet stepped foot on a golf course, during an interview with Golf Digest.
The possibility of a prison-free life started in December 2018, when the Senate finally passed, and President Trump signed, the FIRST STEP Act, intended to do two things: cut unnecessarily long federal sentences and improve conditions in federal prison. The implementation of the First Step Act is highly debated, but this bipartisan bill signed into law by President Trump in 2017 was the first criminal justice reform bill passed in nearly a decade.
“It was a big day for us in the jail,” Dixon said during an interview. “Guys were going crazy, shaking the bars of the cells. That’s all we can do to celebrate a moment, and there was this feeling that here was a president who was finally going to do something for prison reform.”
MEETING TIGER WOODS
Now, two years since his September 2018 release, Dixon’s desire to work alone in isolation has also changed. These days, Dixon—a gold medal recipient from the Vatican and nominated for two Emmys—enjoy the pleasures of travel, visiting friends, and reconnecting with family. He also shares his passion for drawing on his self-hosted program “Draw and Talk With Me” in episodes where he invites guests to learn how to sketch while discussing a variety of social issues. Some of his guests have included Hollywood Actors, Pro Athletes, people in the Music Industry, and everyday people like you and him.
The drawing Dixon sold to Michelle Obama also included a recorded video message for her husband. Dixon one day hopes to meet the Obamas, “I’ve asked Michelle and Barack and the family to come do a Draw and Talk with Me,” he said. “Hopefully that’ll happen.”
“For me, my life is about redemption, leaving a legacy of some kind to remind people that they can overcome anything,” Dixon told Golf Digest. “Because we will each be tested in life, we just don’t know how.”
The beautiful drawing by Valentino is expected to hang on the wall of President Barack Obama, the 44th President of the United States.
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