The other day I received notification that I had three pieces accepted into a local show. This is a show that is short and sweet (one weekend) and only about 30 minutes away, At this show I usually either sell a piece or win a small award and get to see some "artist" friends at the opening reception or during drop off and pick up times. Juried shows are probably the bane of many artist's experience as you never get any merit points for being in "good" shows with "good" curators and "good" locations. Every time you enter a piece it's a crap shoot as to whether or not you'll be in. I am chosen more often to be in a show if the juror is an artist or in education. Curators of museums both small and large generally skip over my work. Because there is no feedback as to the reason for your rejection one can only guess as to the reasons. In addition jurors with liberal tastes will be more likely to jury my piece in a show than a conservative judge. One time I drove to Providence, Rhode Island from central Pennsylvania to enter a small show that was co-sponsored by Yoko Ono. Being a major John Lennon fan I couldn't pass this opportunity up and drove the seven and 1/2 hours to the coast, dropped off my painting and hunkered down in a hotel for three days until it was time to pick up the piece if it did not make the show. I loved the piece I made which was to commemorate the 100 year anniversary of a Russian-Japanese treaty. Even though the show was in a small tourist type gallery I knew there would be lots of applicants because of the connection with Yoko Ono so I chose to paint a bold graphic with strong colors that could stand out in a room of contenders. When I returned three days later to pick up my work I saw the show and was struck by the lack of color of all the artwork in the room. Oh wells.
