If I start referring to myself in the third person like some TV celebrity, or using “we” when I’m really saying “I,” smack me silly. This could go to my head.
Seven fair entries. Ten ribbons.
Six firsts and one second place.
One Reserve Champion. (Second best art piece in any medium, adult division.)
One Best of Class. (Top pencil drawing among all exhibitors.)
One Special Award. (Which I believe actually just means that whether the entry was good or not, they’re recognizing that you worked your bazonka off creating it. This went to the Memory Necklace, which was indeed an epic project.)
What was coolest — well beyond the ribbon swag and whatever money they send me a month or two from now — is that the best awards went to the best pieces.
You know how you often look at these things and wonder, “Why the heck did the judges choose that one over this one?” Well, with me they got it just right.
Reserve Champ went to my most striking pastel — the piece I personally thought was the top of all my seven entries. Best of Class went to one of the most exquisite (if I do say so myself), detailed, striking colored pencil drawings I’ve ever done. And the Special went to a project that was a real labor of love — and a real labor.
Pix below.
These four are mine. Reserve Champ at the top. Best of Class at the bottom. The middle two you might recognize from BHM. I didn’t photograph the fifth art entry because personally I think it’s hideous. But it did win a blue ribbon.
That “Special” ribbon might only mean “A for Effort,” but it’s sure pretty.
And they did find a lovely place to display “Doorway to the Sun,” after all. This was in a case right at the entry — super visible, and paired with one of the most mega-humongeous super-awarded pieces in the craft building.
LMAO, you just stomped all over the place !!! WOW, that’s awesome. Your ribbons are prettier than mine are (LOL).
Now you get to build/find something to display all those ribbons in, heh.
At least those people know good art when they see it 😉
Congrats !!!!!!
Thank you, my fellow ribbonista. Are you sure there’s no room for my ribbons in your scrapbook? Yikes, around here I think adding that much more Stuff might cause the household to achieve critical mass and explode.
Claire very nice, congratulations on your achievement.
Excellent outcome!! Of course we here all knew it would turn out like that. 🙂
“Of course we here all knew it would turn out like that. :-)”
Yes, we did, Karen.
That is awesome, Claire! Congratulations again ― and may all your future endeavors sail though with equal success.
Whoohoo! That’s great!
Sweet. Congratulations–I have no doubt the accolades are well-deserved.
We just had our “county” fair last weekend as well, and despite it being a bit of a scramble, we were able to get two entries in for our 5yo, just to have her experience it. She really has planted and raised her own kale and petunias (and Brussels sprouts and fennel too, but we didn’t enter those), and next year we’ll be able to enter her via 4-H so that she can experience the judge interviews, at which I suspect she’ll do quite well.
Anyway, we weren’t expecting anything–this was our first go-round and we’re trying to learn a bit about how this fair works–and dang if she didn’t take a second and third place for her two entries. (Lots of grins.)
And we did learn, too. The judges’ comment on her kale was “should be bigger”–but she didn’t pick her sample for size. Mom instructed her to pick the ones she’d most like to eat–and so of course she picked from the younger stems. (This is one of the things that appeals to us about the 4-H system…that backstory would have come into play during the interview, and regardless of the result would have contributed to the growth process.)
We’ll be back next year. That was rather fun, the more so because we now know people from all over the Peninsula and often run into folks we haven’t seen in a while.
Congrats.
I trust you celebrated with some funnel cake. 🙂
“I trust you celebrated with some funnel cake. :)”
Elephant ears!
(No, actually, good primalista that I sometimes try to be, I celebrated with a giant plate of Asian veggies and a chicken teriyaki skewer. M-m-m good!)
Kevin, that’s cool Five years old and already winning fair prizes. Definitely the way to go. Congrats to her and nice parenting.
We knew it would turn out like that? Who’s this we?
Okay, I figured it might turn out well (though perhaps not that well). But mainly that’s because the local talent pool is small and the distribution of ribbons is pretty liberal. It is hard to get the Bests and Champions and Specials, so I’m really proud of those. But given the Danish system of judging that they use, it’s actually theoretically possible for every single entry to win a blue or a red. Doesn’t happen, but it’s possible.
This was fun, though. Also, I ran into Ms Crusty Senior who told me she stayed up all night trying to figure out where to put my table and a couple of other big entries. I thanked her profusely — while spending the next 20 minutes trying to edge away as she gave me a full account of her 44 years as superintendent of that building with emphasis on what a bunch of idiots everyone else at the fair has always been. 🙂
Awesome! Congratulations!!!!
Congratulations!
Wonderful, and I’m glad you seem to have had so much fun at this – after a frustrating beginning. And heck, display your ribbons at least for a while. If you don’t hang them all on one wall, the house shouldn’t fall over. LOL
Claire- are you available for commissions? I’d love to have a portrait of our two “boys”, Fletcher and Walker. They’re both rescued “mutts”, but in our eyes, most handsome!
My congratulations on your success… Well deserved.
I understand your reluctance to photograph that fifth drawing. I’ve always painted, as well. ( Just can’t “get” my dogs to look right. They always turn out looking half crazed. ) Anyway, 40 years ago, I gave my Mom a seascape painting that I did, but just hated. She has hung it front and center in her living room ever since, and insists upon telling one and all that I did it. I’ve begged her for it, so I could destroy the thing, and offered to replace it with another. She won’t hear of it. No matter how much others might like a piece of work, if the artist doesn’t like it, she never will.
Cindy — I’m not sure whether to laugh or shudder at your story about the seascape you gave your mom. OMG, I hear ya. I’ll bet you almost want to sneak in some night and “disappear” that painting.
I’d love to see the half-crazed dogs, though. 🙂
Thanks for asking if I take commissions. I have taken a few in the past. But it’s always a little freaky trying to follow my own creative notions while also attempting to present somebody’s dogs, cats, or children as they want to see them. Let me think about it, okay?
Congratulations, Claire! Sometimes the fruits really DO come from the right efforts.
Brava! Well done! You’ve earned the right to crow.
Thanks for the consideration, Claire, I understand. I also interpret my work in different ways, sometimes to the puzzlement of those trying to figure out what I’ve done. And, I will go through “phases” of style… I become bored with doing things the same way, and go on to experiment with something else. I’ve always believed that one artist can, if given enough time, copy another’s style. It’s coming up with something unique that is difficult. The painting I did at 19, that my Mom won’t give up, led me on to abstract art…that I truly love. Once I made that turn, I began getting “How To Draw” books from my Mom for Christmas. She was concerned that I had forgotten how to paint!
😉
Great job!
We knew it would turn out like that? Who’s this we?
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🙂 Yes, LarryA. You did tell me so. I remember.
Glad you had fun. Those are very nice drawings.