Two good reads for your perusal today from the recent 52nd Annual Northern California Regional Juried Art Show. One of this year's jurors Marc Lancet offers a great statement about art, art making, and the show below:
There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all of time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and it will be lost. The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is nor how valuable nor how it compares with other expressions. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open. You do not even have to believe in yourself or your work. You have to keep yourself open and aware to the urges that motivate you. Keep the channel open. ...No artist is pleased. [There is ] no satisfaction whatever at any time. There is only a queer divine dissatisfaction, a blessed unrest that keeps us marching and makes us more alive than the others. --Martha Graham.
This annual event is all about celebration. Before any decisions are made, before any pictures are hung, we can look about us and rejoice that art is in the world. It is art that defines our world and gives us hope, solace and fortitude. All the artists who have brought work here for this exhibition are doing the work that holds us together as a civilization.
Art is a required nutrient for human existence. Like vitamin C. Do without it and you get scurvy. Without art, the human spirit withers, becoming smaller, feeling less, seeing less, experiencing less. Without art, the human spirit fails to achieve its potential. As with many maladies stemming from nutrition deficiencies; the effects are subtle, slow, incremental, and difficult to notice as the human spirit diminishes. Fortunately art and artists abound and the cure is everywhere.
So I thank all the artists who brought work for this exhibition. Not all can be shown but all is appreciated. If you have work in this show congratulations. Keep working. If your work did not get in this time, congratulations we are all bettered by your work. Keep working.
And now for the 2nd most coveted item from the show (the 1st being a ribbon), we present the notes from jury day!
These notes are provided by a dedicated volunteer taken while the jurors discussed their initial and final selections on jury day. The notes reference artworks by their entry number, check your artwork tag or claim check for your number and see what jurors responded to in your work. Enjoy!