Lately I have been informed of a lot of calls for entries for photography contests. It seems like now that I graduated, my best chance at living the life of a fancy famous photographer is to win these contests… or marry rich…
Anyway, this first contest, Artists Wanted, is by far the best as far as prizes go. Unfortunately, the contest CLOSES TODAY so if you want to enter, you better get moving. Entry fee is $10 per photo. The grand prize is $10,000 and a year living rent free in a $1 million NYC apartment! Not to mention an NYC gallery show! If you’re feeling kind, please go to my page and rate my portfolio at 5 stars! The judging for the big prize is not based of portfolio ratings, but there is a peoples’ choice award as well.
Art of Photography Show is another call for entries going on right now. The grand prize money is $2,000. There are also a lot of smaller prizes, and there’s the fact that you get in the show itself which gets you a lot of exposure and your piece will probably sell. The deadline for this one is not until JUNE 7TH so you still have a little bit of time. Entry fee is $25 for the first photo and $10 for every additional photo.
I personally have spent enough money on photo contests for now, but I also stumbled across this contest, PDN Emerging Photographer that you might want to look into.
Do you know of any photography contests or calls for entries? Post them in the comments!
Fellow classmate William LeGoullon has an excellent exhibition titled Intermission at Eye Lounge in Phoenix. It runs through April 10th so you still have time to go check it out if you haven’t yet! I stopped by on First Friday after checking out the ASU Photographers’ Association 4th Annual Silent Auction AND spontaneously stumbling into a Black Carl concert! It was an eventful night of amazing art and Bill’s show was the highlight of it all! His photographs explore the few remaining drive-in movie theaters in Arizona and all that can be found within them. Having had classes with Bill, I had seen many of his work prints from this project, but experiencing his images on canvas in the gallery space was a whole other level.
Eye Lounge is a tiny collective artist-run gallery space and on this particular night it was packed full of people coming in and out from the First Friday crowd. The west part of the gallery housed Bill’s show. It was crowded and hot so I was happy to see the cooler of beers and some chairs in one corner. Every other wall was filled with large canvas prints that seemed to mimic the movie screens.
The photographs themselves are truly impressive. Taken with a view camera, the detail and color that he achieved is stunning. The scenes he captured are of the desolate drive-in during the daytime, and also of the objects he found there. One particularly fascinating piece was a large catalog of various bottle caps collected at these theaters. I felt it was a great way to document found objects. The collection of rusted caps added another dimension to the idea of the fading drive-in scene in addition to photographing the actual space.
Apache Speakers by William LeGoullon
This striking image titled Apache Speakers was of particular interest to my date. He actually ended up purchasing it! The way that the blurred out empty screen frames the rusted speakers is evocative of past times when these now deserted places were the place to be.
Perhaps one of my favorite aspects of these photographs is the fact that they capture a sense of not only the drive-in space, but of Arizona itself. Something about the empty dirt lot, blank white screen, and blue sky evokes the feeling of hot, deserted, dusty Arizona.
If you’re in Phoenix before this show closes, you really should stop by and see it!
Last week I had the pleasure of attending a BFA senior exhibition of a group of graduating painting and drawing majors at Arizona State University’s Gallery 100. The show, titled OliO featured the works of Rachel Eskandari, Patrick Hubbell, Richard Kelly, Edward Mitchell, Samantha Nelson, Kathleen Willis, Matthew Knapp, Kali Pendle, and Jennifer Verbil. The group describes themselves as having very different work using different methods, but all containing the unifying elements of line, shape, and color. Their choice of title references this hodgepodge mixture and upon seeing the exhibition, it is clear why.
Still sleepy from the nap I had taken that nearly made me miss the opening reception, I made my way to Gallery 100 expecting most of the guests to have already gone home. I was instantly awakened upon entering the gallery by the bustling atmosphere and both visual and audio stimulation. Aside from a musician performing some live jams in one corner, every single wall was filled with art. The gallery itself is a fairly small space so it is no surprise that fitting in the work of nine people is no easy task. Colorful paintings and sculptures on pedestals immediately caught my attention.
One artist whose work was particularly eye-catching is Rachel Eskandari, and not just because she’s my pal! Her work was placed in an ideal location, and her use of color and the sheer size of the work instantly drew me in.
This is one of Rachel’s oil paintings, titled Double Vision. I was incredibly impressed with this piece. The painting is quite large in scale, and being greeted with all these larger-than-life facial features awakened my senses.
This is another one of Rachel’s oil paintings, titled Cherub. The use of gold leaf seems to make the face glow and invites the viewer into the painting.
One thing I really appreciated about Rachel’s choice of works to display is that the three paintings she chose were all cohesive and showcased her style and her talents. With just those three pieces I was able to see her vision uninterrupted. Another artist who I felt had a lot of success with her choice of work is Kali Pendle. I failed to get any images of her drawings, but they were a series of three very clean and precise dark skeletal drawings on white paper. I also felt that the placement of her work in relation to Rachel’s in the gallery was successful and visually interesting. The contrast of Rachel’s explosion of colors with Kali’s reduced black on white gave the show the kind of variety one would expect when you think of the word “olio”!
I felt that some of the other artists in the show were less successful with their choices. Many of the artists had both 2d and 3d work, and often times the combination of the two led to problems with both space and continuity. The back half of the gallery seemed cramped with sculptural elements that did not necessarily fit with the artists’ 2d pieces. Nonetheless, there were some very beautiful sculptures that would make an amazing separate exhibition.
One thing is certain about OliO; it was the culmination of many different artists’ work all coming together to form one big stew of creative energy. As I left the gallery (free chocolate in hand), I felt awakened and energized for my late night yoga session. Congratulations to all the artists on a overall very successful exhibition!
Click here to check out Rachel Eskandari’s blog!
A big thanks to everyone who made it out to the Salad Days opening reception! It was a huge success and I had a great time! Sadly the show was taken down today. I wish it could have been up for longer than one week! Oh well, I guess I’ll just have to try and get into another exhibition soon!
SALAD DAYS!
TONIGHT!
6-8 pm!
GALLERY 100!
