Why Do I do It?
Last night was the opening reception of the Bangor Art Society Open Juried Show At Eastern Maine Development Corp, Bangor, 40 Harlow St. Bangor, 3rd floor. Last year in 2022 I won the Best in Show Award. But this year, I took two awards! 2nd place in watercolor for my "Friendship Harbor Rowboats" and 2nd place for my pastel painting of the Green Lagoon, Deer Isle, Maine. The person who won first place in watercolor was one of my watercolor Landscape student's Obrianna Cornelius. She has never won first place over me before last night and she finally did with her amazing narrative watercolor figure painting of her son jumping and about to land in a large puddle, I think it was called "Puddle Jumping". It was a painting she made in my class as an out-of-class assignment and I encouraged her to enter it. In fact her painting was such a great idea it inspired me to paint, "Friendship Harbor Rowboats". I painted mine to compete with her reflections, but I always knew her narrative in the end would be hard to beat. It was a shame that she did not attend the opening, or else she would have heard me cheer her on and applaud for her loudly.
Clearly it was the narrative element in her painting that attracted the judges, because the Best In Show this year went to another great narrative portrait by Brenda Guay of Ben Ferenczren, the last living Nuremberg trail Prosecutor of Nazis, who died at 103. This oil was exquisitely painted with plenty of emotion, It had an amazing story of how the painter and Ben collaborated on this piece. Brenda cried describing it to the reporters who filmed and interviewed her and so did many of us as she shared her story about what he went through and her process in painting him.
There were at least 6 of my recent watercolor and oil painting students who got into this show this year for the first time and that made me so proud of them. In fact, they are the reasons why I continue to show my work, as I enjoy exhibiting with them at this beautiful venue. As a very accomplished watercolor and oil painter who sometimes does pastels, I know that any one of us can win awards at any time and in any open show like this one. What is more difficult is winning Best In Show two or three years in a row back to back. I don't know if it has ever been done before. It has taken me years to win 8 of them, as if that was ever my primary goal. But here is the thing, at what point does any painter who has considered themselves as being "established" ever decide that they don't need to participate? Or is it a matter of ego or even fear that one won't be able to win at the highest level on a consistent basis? Maybe there are just higher prizes to win out of state, or to be published in prestigious calendars that promote exclusive businesses. Maybe. But, the truth of the matter has always been, that you are a winner if you have the courage to put yourself out there and ultimately just get juried in. And as one who has been consistently winning every year for over twenty years, I can tell you I still get a thrill in the chase. It is true, you can't win every year, it's hard to be the "GOAT" of the Bangor Art Society's Open Juried Show. And why would you want to be? Even if you are, and you win every year, it can becomes a lonely place to uphold. Maybe that is why some people never enter after they win their first "Best in Show" award. But, if your goal is to just get in the show, then that is the real accomplishment. Because, If you happen to win an award among one hundred other quality pieces submitted, that is quite an accomplishment from those two judges, who were Diana Baumbach,Asst. Prof & Director of Galleries at the University of Maine at Orono and David Esty, Artist from Belfast. So Congratulations! to all my students who are artists in their own right and to all who's work was juried into the show. It was good to see you all there and old established friends as well who dared to enter the race. This show is a winner and a must see because of talent like you!
