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.