Facing the Jury

This week I had the honor of being on a jury panel for an art gallery show. I had never sat on this side of the table so it has been interesting and informative to see things from the other side.

Juried art shows are one of the ways we artists get our work out into the public. We look at show listings, ‘call for artists’, which are probably similar to acting audition listings, and decide which ones feel like a good fit for what we do.

After we narrow down the choices to what fits our work, we then decide if we have a particular piece or two that are an especially good fit for the theme of the show. Then we have a look at the juror. Is it someone whose work we know? If so, would they like ours? If we don’t know their work, we look at their bio and think, would this person choose my work? Notice it’s not personal – the juror will never know that I entered specifically, they just have a look at the exact piece I’ve entered and choose it or not.

So, if all that seems to be a likely or even possible match, we send off our entry fee and jpegs, cross our fingers and hope we get picked.

This week I was the picker. All of the pieces in the pool matched the theme, which was a broad one of ‘colorful’. And all of the pieces had a pretty high level of technical mastery of what they presented. So how to narrow down the field into my picks for the show? A lot of it came down to choosing what I felt were the ‘best’ pieces – yes, my personal opinion. What resonated most with me emotionally.

Some were so outstanding technically that I had to give them a yes vote. Others maybe could have been a little better executed but their theme was really compelling so those got an easy yes as well. The rest sat in a place where very little separated the yes’s from the no’s and it made me realize how subjective the jury process really is. I’ve always intuitively known this but it was good for me to really experience this.

I guess the best thing an artist can do is to create one of those pieces that the juror just can’t pass up. Wait, isn’t that the way we feel about all of the pieces we make and love? Anyway, it’s a good reminder to have while I await the jury results from the shows I’ve entered with what I think were my best matched pieces.

For September I have a show at Edgewater Gallery featuring my new lamps. It’s so nice to see them with their shades on, in a clean space, where I can really appreciate them. The show will be up all month – or until they’re all gone – so stop by the gallery if you’re in Fort Bragg