MAM Awards - Time To Vote

Time to pick one! One from each category, that is.

Katherine Tyrrell, at Making a Mark, has posted the finalists for the Making a Mark Awards, 2010. You have until very early December 30th. to enter your vote for each category.
   
Vote for the best artwork on an art blog in 2010.

First Place Award

Casey Klahn

Artist Casey Klahn, of Davenport, Washington, received the First Place Award in the Drawing category, at the Sausalito Art Festival, September 4-6, 2010. Klahn won this award for the whole body of work presented in his outdoor booth, which this year featured The Prairie Series of pastel landscapes.

The Sausalito Art Festival enjoys national and international prominence as one of the best fine art and craft venues. Established in 1952, it has become a premier annual destination event for collectors and art patrons.

Casey Klahn received the same award in 2009: First Place in Drawing, Sausalito Art Festival. His other awards include the Making a Mark Award for the Best Picture of a Place posted on an artist blog in 2009, and two Juror's Choice Awards, 2005 and 2007, in Fine Art from the Spokane ArtFest, jurist Michael Monroe.


The Prairie Series.
Sausalito Art Festival.
2010 Awards List.


Photo Credit: Lorie Klahn

Note to my readers: Regulars at The Colorist already know about my new award, but since I only snuck the news in as a photo caption I now have to provide this formal release to appease the self promotion troll. Thanks for your forbearance!

Sausalito Picture Update

Casey Klahn, Goin' Uptown
Friday Gala Opening Sausalito Art Festival




Sunday, Klahn Receives First Place Award in the Drawing Category, Sausalito

27 Art Blogs To Watch 2010

Artist Donna Zagotta, of Notes From the Studio, Donna Zagota's Art Blog, asked her readers to name their favorite art blogs so that she "could create a list of hot art blogs to watch in 2010." The Colorist was one of the 27 Art Blogs to Watch in 2010, posted February 15th., 2010. If you follow the link you will be astounded by the many kinds of art blogs that she has noted. I am proud to be on the list and I had a great time reading and following the links. Thank you, Donna!

Artist Mary Anne Cary has also given The Colorist a Sunshine Award, which I gratefully acknowledge. I have an idea of how to pass on this sunshine, which I will be working on soon. Thank you, Mary Anne!

Next post: How To Mind Map Your Blog.

How to Paint for the Prize

Blue & Gray River
10" x 14.5"
Pastel
Casey Klahn

How to Paint for a First Place or a Best in Show.

It occurred to me that you might like to hear my secrets for painting to win a prize. When I knew that I was going to be in the prestigious Sausalito festival this year, I wanted to up my game, and bring the best artwork that I could. First, I decided to paint specifically for a first place prize. Cheeky, to be sure, but I hope that every serious artist would think the same way.

Very much to my surprise, I did receive First Place in my category, which was Drawing. As proof of the difficulty level, my award was a tie with the incredible Sheila M. Evans. Sheila seems to win awards everywhere she goes, and it isn't hard to see why. She's probably the most talented artist I know.

But for me, it was a hat trick. And, while the thoughts are fresh in my mind, I'll share the How To in the next few posts. We will consider the following:

Focus
Commit
Content (have ideas)
Narrow the time frame
Edit

Focus on a body of work that will "read" easily and quickly. The judges with the clipboards are looking at the work of 100-300 artists. That can mean a dizzying assortment of thousands of pieces of eye candy, all popping out and screaming "Love me! Look at me!"

The judges are on their feet, and they are there with their own sets of ideas of what they like. How will you be able to appear great, or even appear present, to these judges?

Don't bother them. If they are over ten feet away from you, just leave them alone. Ideally, your booth/display will be neat and orderly when they show up, and your best work will be available to see.

One year, I built an actual wall out of 2x4s and drywall. It was painted white, with some texture, and in the back, or deep, part of my booth. I won a top award from one of the nation's leading arts professionals, Michael Monroe. He actually gave me the award (Juror's Choice/ 2-D) two years in a row. At that show, there are three Juror's Choice awards presented for broad categories like Fine Craft and Wood and Visual Art. It looks great on my resume, and fits well in my shpeal to gallerists and collectors.

This year, I couldn't afford the space and decided to do my best with just my dark gray Pro Panels. As it turned out, that was good enough and the judges found my booth just fine.

Focus for me this year meant staying with a theme based, at one level, on subject. The River Series depicts typical American rivers. I stayed primarily with landscape (long) aspects and similar points of view (slightly high viewpoint from the near bank).

But wait, there's more! I had deeper meanings to my theme. There were fairly meaningful art related ideas as well. They included the unusual use of dark passages as "eye sumps" in the composition. Also, my ideas of coupling Modern Art ideas with Contemporary ideas. Half real and half abstract. Intensity of color, and keying on the primaries. More on this when I post on content.

Focus for clarity and to bring forward the merits of your art, and the award givers (and patrons) will beat a trail to your door.

Next, in a day or two I hope, I'll cover commitment. See you then.

Blogging Love

Do you feel that art blogging should be even more popular or widespread than it is now? I do, and I predict that it will become more popular this year than ever before.

I have been slacking here at The Colorist just a bit, lately. On the plus side, some of that inattention has been due to extra time in the studio. A very happy thing!

Another happy thing was receiving the "I love Your Art Blog Award" from Kathi Peters at Equine Artists. Thanks for the love! I wish I could love-up an award for every artist blogger who reads here, too. The rules of this meme are that a recipient should name seven loves, and pick seven more art blogs to receive this award.

My past award recipients are listed at this post. I want to shake the love around and pick others this time.

Seven peeps I love:

1. Wife
2. Son
3. Daughter
4. Artists
5. Art Patrons
   
6. Army Veterans
7. Our Brave Servicemen

My seven blogs to love:

1. Brian McGurgan - Brian McGurgan's Drawings, A Journal
   
2. Robert Chunn - Alla Prima
   
3. Jala Pfaff - Art Every Day
   
4. Charley Parker - Lines and Colors
   
5. Garth Edwards - The Artist of Paradox
   
6. Loriann Signori - Loriann Signori's Painting-A-Day
   
7. Gesa Helms - Paint and Pastel
   

Ever feel like your circle of artist blogs is too narrow? One fun way to go out visiting is to take an award like this and Google it to see who's been posting about it. An example.

Another slick place for discovering art blogs is the new Art Blog Directory. Spin the cube!

Eden Compton has tagged me here, as well. Thanks, Eden! Adam Cope has awarded me here, and I hope to post my responses next. Thanks, Adam!

C.A.W. Creative Artist Award

This is a list of my award giving:

Excellent Blogs

Meg Lyman
Julie Oakley
Maggie Stiefvater
Tracy Helgeson
Lisa Hunter
Joan DaGradi
Robyn Sinclair
Elijah Shifrin
Stephanie Smith
Deborah Paris

Made Day

Julianne Richards
Martha Marshall
Elizabeth Love
David Novak
William Lehman

Brilliante Award

Petra Voegtle
Tracy Helgeson
Deborah Paris
Lloyd Irving Bradbury
The Gang at Moleskine Exchange International, present party excluded
Adam Cope
Ann Nemcosky

Arte y Pico Award

Eden Compton
Vivien Blackburn
Harry Bell
Joan DaGradi
David Cornelius


Looks like I must really like Tracy, Joan, and Deborah because I awarded each of them twice! Some people never get meme awards from me, such as Corrine Bayraktaroglu (Jafabrit), or Kim Barker, because they are the ones giving me the award every time. Either that, or I look and see them recently receiving the same award!

I did create a virtual medal of art, called The Art Medal, which is presented with some fanfare and a letter. It is a more-serious-than-the-standard meme award and is characterized as the recognition of artistic courage. The sole awardee is Corrine Bayraktaroglu.

The Creative Artist Award goes to:

Jennifer Phillips
Mad Silence
Kate Beck
Joanne Mattera

I ask these bloggers to write roughly 100 words about artistic creativity and post them at their blogs.

Thanks, again, to Kim Barker for giving me this award!

Excellence is as Excellence Does

Now, to respond to the excellent Kim Barker's meme, given to me here. My job is to rate 10 more blogs as excellent. BTW, my ratings & stats have come from "the tank" to "groovin'" in the past 2.5 months. I am happy for all of you who have linked me, blog rolled me, or just plain read this blog. My heartfelt thanks!

Some of you have eschewed these memes, and I have no way of knowing. Nothing bad will happen to you if you break this chain! Something good, as far as readership, may happen, though!

Excellent Blogs:

Meg Lyman - The Crash Octopus
Julie Oakley - Julie's Pictures
Maggie Stiefvater - Graywaren Art (I figure you don't do these, Maggie, but here it is anyway)
Tracy Helgeson - Works by...
Lisa Hunter - The Intrepid Art Collector (She's so droll, she'll probably take me off of her blog roll for this - but I love her blog!)
Joan DaGradi - Postcards from New Orleans
Robyn Sinclair - Have Dogs...
Elish - Art & Critique (Hmmn..Can't find a name for him, but I appreciate his work)
YellowSteph - A Roker Artist
Deborah Paris - A Painting Life

Made Day

Thanks to Jafabrit for this touching blog award.

The easiest way for me to fulfill my obligations to my two current "viral" awards will be to list my bloglines feeds. These are the blogs I view daily. I am plodding along on some bed rest, you know, so I'll finish this post and ping these bloggers about this soon.


Today, we'll respond to the Made My Day Award. Let's pick a theme of abstraction, as these artists make me think:

1. The Colorspeaker - Julianne Richards, of NYC. She does colorful abstracts , Acrylic on canvas or paper. Medium sized works that include a combination of gestures, shapes and colors.
2. An Artist's Journal - Martha Marshall, of Tampa, FL. Another Acrylicist whose work is as notable for its rich textural content as for its compositions. You really need to see her website to get the breadth of her work.
   
3. NZ Art - Elizabeth Love, of Timaru, New Zealand. She is one of the best colorists on the internet, in my opinion. Elizabeth shares her Christian faith in an interesting interweaving of textual content with abstracted compositions. Her art involves canvases reminiscent of quilts or tapestries, and lavish, brilliant color.
   
4. David Novak - AE- Life in Flat Land. David's in Matthews, North Carolina. He is also very prolific. I linked him recently, but also added him to my feeds. His automatist work, he says, is akin to "shooting craps." He exploits the chance events in the abstract painting process. And, he's not afraid to think and write about his work, which I think is admirable.
   
5. deCloned - William Lehman. William lives in Newark, OH, and has his hands in more projects than you can count.
   

Here's the meme:

1. Write a post with links to 5 blogs that make me think and/or make my day.
2. Acknowledge the post of the award giver.
3. Display the “You Make My Day Award” logo.
4. Tell the award winners that they have won by commenting on their blogs with the news.

Blog Awards, Book Tour

Thanks to my awarders for these recent memes. Jafabrit made my day, and Kim Barker grades me an "E" for excellent.

Also, we will get a chance to interview Alyson Stanfield about her new book, I'd Rather Be In The Studio. That will be April 29th. , so be sure to look here then.

Alyson is a spunky, energetic dynamo in person, and prone to the occasional witticism. She has helping artists "in the gut", and it shows in her efforts at the ArtBizCoach, and at the ArtBizBlog. I have sought her help on a number of occasions. Her class on Get Organized is a suicidal month of labeling, trashing, introspecting and interacting. You will suffer. You will cry. You will be a better business person, and be more focused on your art in the studio with fewer monkeys on your back telling you, "what ya' gonna do with that room full of paperwork spread all over the floor?"

I am still convalescing, and wonder if a large hematoma may cause a second surgery. I'll see my physician this week, and may have better news. I am getting in the studio the past three days for @ 3 hour stints of time. Still in bed much of the day, with some pain and nausea. Anyway, that's my excuse for not linking through my obliged award memes, but I will do so soon.

The art is coming along, with a few successes and much discovery. I am developing a "reductive" method that is a lot of fun, but then again that might be my meds...

Jafabrit Wins Award

The Art Medal
Drumroll

It gives me great pleasure to inaugurate The Art Medal and award the first one to Jafabrit, CorrineBayraktaroglu, of Yellow Springs, Ohio.


Her online portfolio is here. She originates from England and had an artist's upbringing in that her mother was an artist. She came seriously to art making after the age of 40, and the maturity of her art shows because of this.

Our decorated artist is known for eclectic art, art philanthropy and is a community organizer for art concerns. If you reside in the Yellow Springs area, you may discover one of her creations in the nook of a tree or tucked beside the mailbox.

Her freedom of spirit is expressed in an art that approaches the disturbing, but never crosses that threshold. Instead, you are mesmerized and need to see more. No respecter of the figure, face or creature, she nonetheless offers these elements of her art as emblems of feelings. Her idea is to eschew medium as too limiting, but instead builds her artworks around subjects. She says, "This allows form to be dictated by the content and not restricted by discipline."

Corrine's courage in making, presenting and giving her art to the world has distinguished her, and it is a pleasure to recognize her for these reasons.

The citation follows:


Please take the time to vote the poll in my right hand column if you want to help name this new medal.

Art Medal

Introducing a new meme that I hope will cheer the blogging artist world this late winter of '08. Drum roll, please. I have coined a medal in my virtual foundry which will be awarded judiciously to artists who example artistic merit. The intention is to award one a month, at first, but to eventually reduce the frequency to one a quarter. The commendation is written in the quote below, and the merits are described separately.

The object is to commend artistic merit, pure and simple. This medal will be awarded by myself, by virtue of my authority as a rank & file fine artist with Photoshop and a PC. In addition, recipients of the medal may award other artists the medal, by virtue of their own authority as awardees.

What begins as a simple blog froo-fru may eventually have greater merit if the Order of Awardees justify well their choices, and limit the frequency of awards. There is an unmistakable authority in peerage, and an inherent virtue in selectivity and prudent judgment. The scope of those eligible will be limited to the fine artists (those involved in painting, drawing, pottery, sculpture) if for no other reason than that there are more awards these days for the other arts than there are for the old school disciplines.

One aspect of this meme is that there will be no link back to myself or this blog beyond one awarding. In other words: I (Blogger A) award the medal to blogger B. Blogger B will have to explain what they have received by referring to the awarding authority and will link Blogger A. But, when Blogger B decides (if they do) to award the medal to a Blogger C, there need be no reference back to Blogger A. The reason is that it is not about Blogger A. It is to illuminate the recipient of the award!

The medal needs a name. I have posted a poll so that any who wish may participate in naming this award. If you don't like any of these, write me a comment.

The following great virtues have been displayed by the receiver of the medal:

Artistic consistency
Unity of thought
Artistic courage

The following citation may accompany the award:

The recipient of this medal has displayed the finest of virtues in the role of presenting his (insert "her" when necessary) fine art. He has exampled the values of courage, creativity and expression.

This artist's work has inspired the public, and has brought human culture forward. His art has earned the praise of this authority and is hereby recognized.

Examples of art medals are as follows:

Wikipedia on Artist's Medals
American Art-Union Medal (America's first medal series struck in the US)
Gold Medal, American Academy of Arts and Letters
French Legion of Honor (example)
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts Medal of Honor
The School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (SMFA) Medal Award
California Art Club Gold Medal
Pastelsblog Best Pastel of All Time
Others include The American Artist's Professional League Medal of Honor and The Allied Artist's of America Silver Medal of Honor.

Morse Medalled
Mary Cassatt Cited
Knip the Kitty Artist
Degas the Master

Decorated Art Heroes:

Artist Samuel Morse (of code fame)
Mary Cassatt
Henrietta Ronner-Knip
Edgar Degas

Self-Decorated Artists:



Future of the award:

Potential directions for the award may be to convene a board of awardees (Order of) to create nominees for the award. Other changes may occur so that, if this award has legs, it may need to be "brought along". I may develop a list of awardees, but will post it on a separate web page.

If the image of the award seems gauche, a redesign may be offered.

Various benefits and awards may accompany this award if it gains cache, and other evolvement may occur with time.

Now that the stage has been set, please stay tuned for the first awardee, who has already been selected.

Running...

Light in Branches
Casey Klahn

Thanks to all of my great friends and readers. While I'm so busy at ArtFest in Spokane, I'm running at full speed and my comments and e-mails are piling up.

On the first day of the Spokane Museum of Arts & Culture and Spokane Art School Artfest I was presented with a Juror's Choice Award. Three "Best of Show" awards are presented in Spokane, and mine was in the paintings and fine art category. While it's always an honor to get merit awards at my regional juried fair, this one is especially exciting because of the person who juried the awards. This excerpt from a web page:

AWARDS
Juror Michael Monroe, Director and Chief Curator of the Bellevue Art Museum, former Curator-in-Charge of the Smithsonian American Art Museumʼs Renwick Gallery (Washington D.C.), and the past Executive Director of the American Craft Council, will select winners of over $3000 in media specific monetary and gift certificate awards. Selections are made during the first day of ArtFest.

Mr. Monroe's expertise is in the area of modern art. I have been informed by the museum staff that this one needs to be in my resume with his name.

Now I just have to figure out how to write that one up. You know me, I'm a big name-dropper and all.