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It is an honor to be asked to judge the Lima Kewpee High
School Art Exhibit this year. As usual there are many hard-working,
talented young students just beginning their journey into the world of the
visual arts. Viewing and evaluating their efforts is an arduous task, yet
one I enjoyed immensely. Young artists seriously pursuing a future in this
field should be building a solid foundation of skills to produce and execute
the projects of their highly creative minds. This show is a prime venue for
displaying their art work.
It was a demanding yet enjoyable day spent judging so many
entries from schools in the greater Lima area. The students who received
awards should feel honored because many of the categories were extremely
competitive with high-quality works of art. Professor Cayton and I spent
many hours reviewing each and every entry. Creating art is a journey that
artists travel. Everyone falls somewhere along the continuum from starting
out to producing winning pieces. Some artists work very hard to achieve
results while others see the journey as a hobby or way to spend leisure
time. This show gives these young artists the opportunity to see where they
fit on the continuum at this early point in their efforts. I encourage them
all to keep up their endeavors, and I look forward to enjoying their future
efforts.
Bob Minto is an art teacher retired from Ada High School
and the
University of Findlay
It was exciting to select a show out of the best of a
submission of very strong work.
When considering the entire body of work that was presented,
several things come to mind. Most obvious is the level of technical
proficiency and the wide range of processes being explored in all the areas
of study. In addition, it was exciting to see that the discovery of
“what they wanted to do” represented the beginning of a process-- not the
end. The young artists explored problems and expanded them into unique
creative solutions. The subject was a resource for many things including
a simple love of texture, tying the composition together, and developing
open and closed color and value patterns -- expanding compositional and
metaphorical ideas. Trying to discover each personal exploration was
clearly one of the interesting challenges of the exhibition for me.
Finally, I am encouraged by what I see from this next
generation of artists—strong fundamental drawing skills. Drawing whether
done with a pencil, brush, coil of clay, or 12-gauge wire remains the
backbone of idea development and gives us the ability to make images and
share them with others. For me it is the mother of the arts and, based on
this exhibition, remains alive and vigorous.
If I could give a word of encouragement to these new artists,
it would be this: Take more time in considering how a work is presented—its
relationship to the base or mounting, the matting, the framing, and the
relationship between the object and the support surface or wall. Several
good pieces could not be selected because they just could not be presented
or the mounting stood out more than the piece the artist was trying to
highlight. A few moments of thought here could be the difference between a
disturbing work and one that is terrific.
Unfortunately the gallery space is not sufficient to show
everything submitted. But every young artist is to be congratulated on
their level of achievement and encouraged to continue with their
development.
Dave Cayton
is Emeritus Professor of Art,
Bowling
Green State University
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