So I’ve finished up judging the initial round of entries into the Parklane Gallery show (Kirkland, WA) and I wanted to share with you all the notes I took while jurying (I also asked that these notes be sent to all entrants). By the way, it took me a number of hours spread over several days, and sleeping on my decisions between times, to finalize my choices.
The diversity of styles and subject matter - including some very original treatments of subjects not commonly seen in animal art - made jurying this show an enlightening and gratifying experience. I was delighted by the boldness many artists showed in their choices of colors and motifs. By the way, dogs, cats, horses, and roosters were heavily represented in the submissions, for some reason.
If your work did not make it in, please consider the following:
Photography of your work - A few of the images submitted were very small, making it difficult for me to evaluate the works thoroughly. Other pieces were represented by photographs (murky, skewed in the frame, blurry, or with extraneous background) which showed the work poorly. It is important to make sure that your values and colors are represented accurately, especially if you have large white areas in your work - unless you shoot with manual exposure, your camera can make these gray.
Quality - some of the work was not yet mature enough for exhibition; when evaluating your own art, take care to compare it to strong work by top artists. More generally, pieces really had to stand out in some way to be included, and all the elements in the piece had to work together and be of the highest quality, because there was plenty of very good art submitted. There were some interesting, original ideas that didn’t get in, and frequently it was because of a little weakness in drawing or values. In addition, there were paintings that had some good things going for them, but aspects of the pieces (often settings or backgrounds) needed to be treated with the same care as the main subject(s).
Quantity - I juried the show ‘blind’, so the images were simply numbered (not named). There were many artists who submitted more than one piece, which was clear from their style, and I would very much like to have included several of their works. However, since I could only choose 40 (I compromised at 41) pieces for the show, I was forced to make some extremely difficult choices. The organizers also specified that each artist could be represented by only one work.
Originality - there were many pieces that were solid works of art, and I hated to exclude them. But the work that got in not only met the foundation criteria for any good work of art (I discuss these elements in my workshops), it stood out in some way - usually by exhibiting an originality in some aspect that was appealing, striking, humorous, or thought-provoking.
A special note on the more abstract and experimental pieces: I enjoy and study abstraction, and it shows up in my own paintings. In the absence of good drawing - which abstraction often stylizes or abandons - the composition and values must compensate and be quite strong. Alternatively, some of the experimental work was highly original and appealing, but showed a little weakness in drawing or composition.
I cannot emphasize enough that there were MANY fine pieces that could not be included due to space limitations, and I agonized at great length over my decisions. Thank you to the artists for submitting such interesting work, and to Parklane for giving me the honor of judging this show.
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