JUDGE'S STATEMENT

At its 22nd anniversary, the Art’s Alive Festival of Fine Art is certainly one of the longest continuous events of its nature in Northern Vermont. This year’s exhibition makes it easy to see why it has outlasted many other visual arts events. According to the latest U.S. Census data, Vermont has the fourth highest per capita incidence of visual artists amongst its population. In Chittenden County, more specifically in Burlington, we are particularly blessed. This event shows us the range of creativity, diversity, technical skill and media employed in Northern Vermont.

It is a difficult task to look to the disparate work of over 50 artists, working in different media, whose work was not specifically designed around the thesis of a curated show and was not designed to necessarily hang together, and not only make sense of it, but to draw conclusions about relative merit. We were specifically told that there were no criteria imposed upon us by Art's Alive, Inc to guide us in our tasks. Quickly, we decided that we needed some of our own, to help insure, as much as possible, the standardization and objectivity through which we would come to our decisions.

These are the qualities we looked for in the artwork: 1) Originality and creativity. 2) Respect for the medium (media) employed. 3) Technical expertise. 4) Communication with the viewer, relevance and underlying concept. The pieces we chose are very clear about what they are, and what they are not. They speak in a clear and direct voice. There is no ambiguity about them. They are not, for example, a drawing pretending to be a painting, or vice versa. We also found that these pieces clearly demonstrate the care, skill, respect for the media used, and experience of the creator.

Rusty by John Brickels is a piece that has it all. We found ourselves quite often looking at other pieces and comparing them to this one. Finally, we realized that there was a reason for this, and made this positioning official; it is our choice for First Place this year. The technical virtuosity combined with the fantasy-based originality and creativity displayed in this piece are in a class all by themselves. This is world class work!

Second place was a much more difficult selection. By the way, it is relatively easy to look at a bunch of work and decide which ones you like. It is very difficult to do this with a set of objective criteria and narrow your choices down to three slots. In fact, we could not do it, so we decided to create two Second Place awards this year. David Woolf’s Green Totem #1, is a highly idiosyncratic and original composition that truly lives up to the premise of its name. When you are in its presence, it is easy to fall under the totem’s spell. There is plenty of technical skill employed in creating this composition out of everyday objects. We were both highly drawn (no pun intended) to Joanna Nagy’s composition, I’m Pretty Sure It’s Not Supposed to Be There. This is our choice for Second Place this year. This is a well developed piece utilizing a variety of media on paper, which show off the talents of the hand behind it. There is a very personal narrative behind this piece, and yet it speaks to everyone that takes the time to listen.

For the Third Place award, we chose a very classic medium-painting. This piece is a traditional oil painting, or is it? The composition is masterful. The perspective employed in the piece draws the viewer in. In fact it is easy to imagine yourself inside this world walking down the street running by the alley that is one of the focal points of this work. Yet the colors employed are not traditional, the scene isn’t rendered with abject clarity, and there is a certain amount of “other worldliness” about this painting, that make Alley Pass by Wendy James a highly original piece.

Mark S. Waskow, Founder
The Waskowmium

Syndi Zook, Executive Director
Lyric Theater