how do you judge art?

The ongoing question I will never have an answer to, how do you judge artwork and decide what is accepted to a show, and what should win awards?

Every time a judge is brought in to jury a show, that judge is going to have an idea of what they want the show they put together to look like; I try to remind myself of this every time I submit to a juried show. Some artists actually find out more about the judge and what their preferences might be. I have never done that... but I do know certain art associations lean toward certain art styles. Cambridge is more abstract and edgy, Marblehead not so abstract. (these are just my opinions, and I am no judge!)

Last week I found out I was rejected from the Cambridge Art Association open regional show, disappointing because I was in the show last year, and the same day I found out I was accepted and even won an honorable mention award at the Marblehead Arts Association regional show. Each of these shows had an underlying theme, and each judge had their personal preferences.

I also think to win awards you have to be a little bit lucky too. :)

Above is my award winning painting in the Marblehead show - "Valley Sunrise"

learning from the internet

It's definitely a world wide "web"... that you can weave in discoveries from one website to the next.

This past week I have found many new places to learn and share my art with the primary focus being artist trading cards. I really am going to need to settle down and spend some time updating my professional website (fineartbyrobin.com) but in the meantime, I have joined these websites -

http://www.atcsforall.com/

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/artisttradingcards/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/robinatcs/

(and I even post on facebook!)

It will take me time to navigate and learn how to take advantage of all these sites have to offer. I am in school all weekend so my focus has to shift and my card making energy will have to be put on hold, for now.

selling art cards

My newest cards are more landscape-like and I am starting to think I may sell certain works as ACEO's (artist card editions and originals). Artist trading cards were started with the concept of trading in order to network and meet new people, and I will follow the rules for swapping and trading but when I sell my art at shows I can offer a much smaller and affordable option for my patrons if I offer ACEO's.

One thing I am looking at is combining several cards in 1 frame, or just finding out if the cards alone can be presented professionally in a frame. My motivation is to keep the cost down and the quality of the card equal to that of one of my larger paintings.

more more more!

"Nature l", "Bamboo", "Dragonflies", "Red"
"Red Series" group theme trade
"Four Seasons"

I keep making cards! I cant stop! I am having way too much fun! 

Actually, the idea that doing these small works of art as a study for larger artwork to follow has been inspiring me. I have gotten involved in an online artist trading card website and just today decided to start my own ATC group on facebook. It will be interesting to see what happens.

I have posted some of the newest cards I have made over the past week 

mixed media collage

dimensions - 8 x 20

dimensions of each card - 2.5 x 3.5

I have been spending much of my time making artist trading cards and over the weekend I decided one of the cards I had made would be fun to do on a larger scale - interesting to me how one thing leads to another.

The larger collage has a small round mirror and gold glitter in spots (same as the first ATC), both are mountainous landscapes; I also added some string to the larger work to outline the mountains (string was used in the second ATC). I decided to use one of my ink stamps for the tall grass pattern in the foreground instead of gold leaf (used in the third ATC). Using the ATC's as a quick study lead to a larger artwork and was a natural flow in my creative process.

presenting art in new ways

This past week I have only wanted to make more ATCs! We will be making them tomorrow in the last scheduled Turtle Creek class and I have been able to accumulate additional papers and embellishment items. I am enjoying this medium, abstract collages. 

I plan on choosing 3 cards to be placed in 1 frame and will make a triptych presentation of this mixed media work. The summer festival of arts in Marblehead has an annual juried show opened to local artists - I am thinking I can submit this in the mixed media category ... it's still too soon for me to know what level of sharing these cards will take me into but the journey has begun.