The last couple of weeks have been crazy- there was the Houston Artists Collective Extravaganza Show at JoMar Visions/Hardy Nance Studios, and our entries for The BIG Show at the Lawndale Art Center were also due.
I've only entered one other submission to The BIG Show several years ago. It would seem that the general "aesthetic" chosen by the curators for The BIG Show does not quite match up with my style and concept of art... There is a different curator each year, so I decided to give it a whirl this time, in addition to convincing a few of my artist friends as well. Hopefully we'd all get accepted this year!
The BIG Show is a bit unusual in that the jurying process is done from the actual artwork, and not from photos or slides. There were two drop-off days and then if you were not called this past Sunday, you were to come pick up your piece(s) on Monday or Tuesday. The competition was pretty stiff- 404 artists submitted 972 pieces of their work this year, and only 74 artists and 125 pieces were accepted this year. The verdict? Sadly, I was not accepted... Actually, only one of our group of four made it through- but we were really psyched for him!
I tried to expand my piece beyond my usual concepts (as we all did) to see if perhaps that would work out this time, but apparently to no avail... My piece this year is titled The Reaper of our Intellects. Kind of creepy-cute, yet applicable (or so I thought), considering what has been going on in the world lately due to social networking and the internet...
The materials used for this piece include a vinyl mini Munny, a vinyl mini Jumping Brain, Sculpey, acrylic paint, varnish, fabric, paper, a canvas panel, and found objects:
Here is a close-up of Bernard, our friendly neighborhood Reaper, with Ollie, his Twitterific side-kick:
A close-up of the base:
This is only my second piece to contain any type of "blood," don't worry- it's just red paint! Thought I have to admit, it was fun dripping the paint over the mini Jumping Brain... I'm going to need to customize a few of these for Halloween this year for sure!
Bernard was really bummed out about the rejection this past Monday, so I got him some ice cream and chips to try and cheer him up:
There is some good news though...
Local artist Emily Sloan has organized another show, called Salon des Refusés: Artwork Rejected from The BIG Show 2011! Bernard will get to be in a show after all- yay! Emily's show is actually inspired from the original Salon des Refusés, held in Paris, during 1863. Artwork from such masters as Manet, Cezanne and Whistler had been rejected from the Paris Salon, and the show had been organized to "let the people decide." Sounds like we are all in excellent company!
This is the second year Emily has coordinated this show- the inaugural event was held at the Bissonnet Art Salon. This year, the Salon des Refusés will be held at Gallery M Squared in the Heights, during the same time as The Big Show.
2011 Salon des Refusés Information:
Gallery M Squared
339 West 19th St., Houston, TX 77008
Opening date: Friday, 1 July 2011, 6:30-9pm
Opening Music provided by DJ Esteff/Stephanie Saint Sanchez
On view: 6-9 July 2011, 10am to 6pm
Closing date: Saturday, July 9, 2011
Please come out and support Bernard!
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