TAMPA, FL-- Valentino Dixon’s art imitates life. A golf life.

“Without that,” Dixon said, “I wouldn’t be here right now.”

Valentino’s vast artwork collection displays a passion for a sport he never played until recently. Having never set foot on a golf course, Valentino meticulously recreated some of the most legendary holes. And he created them in one of the most unimaginable places, prison.

“ It helped keep my spirits strong, it gave me hope, inspiration,” Dixon said. “These drawings were done in a 6x8 cell, you know, and as I was completing each one, I would always say to myself this is really not me, this is God. This is God working through me.”

Valentino kept the faith and so did those that fought for his freedom, including Georgetown University professor Marc Howard. For 27 years, Valentino served time for a crime he did not commit. And he drew golf courses to find peace.

“It’s impossible to imagine how brutal, how desolate, just how much despair there is inside of prisons and to create this level of beauty , it’s just divine,” Howard said.

Equally divine, Valentino’s attitude. Despite losing 27 years of his life to a system that failed him, despite a prosecutor who suppressed evidence that would have cleared him, evidence that ultimately exonerated him, he holds no ill will or anger.

“I’m amazed by Valentino’s positivity, his lack of bitterness,” Howard said. “He’s just looking forward and wants to help other people and make the world a better place.”

And he’s looking forward to visiting the golf courses he drew from pages in old Golf Digest issues. Soon after he was released from prison, Valentino set foot on a golf course for the first time, Punta Mita in Mexico, with its famed Tale of the Whale hole, a hole he had drawn and one that he carded a 21.

“For me, it’s like is this really real,” Dixon said. “Sometimes I just want to just slap myself and be like, you know this is not really real. But it is, it’s a reality.”

It’s Valentino’s new normal, one where he travels the country sharing his story and his artwork. One where he plays the same golf courses he drew from prison. One where visits Augusta for the first time and meets the Golden Bear and Tiger Woods.

“I got to see Augusta. I got to meet Tiger. I got to meet Jack. I spent some time with Jack Nicklaus, you know, and it doesn’t get any better than that,” Dixon said. “I mean, you can’t make this stuff up.”

Now Valentino Dixon’s life is imitating his art.

“I didn’t know then, but I know it now, there’s no doubt in my mind that God has a purpose for me,” he said, “and he’s going to use me to reach people that you wouldn’t necessarily be able to reach.”