Art vs Art - a plea for support

Welcome the blog entry #100!

Today, I have no hastily drawn lunch bag art. Today I have a hastily painted Art vs. Art competition entry. On which you can vote to help propel me to fame, glory, and a not insignificant amount of walking around money.

Go to vote.artvsart.net set up an account, vote for #20 (seen below), then come right back here so I can explain why you just did that.

#20, i.e., the one you should vote for.

Art vs. Art is an annual art competition extravaganza held in Indianapolis every year. Entrants are supplied with a 18" x 24" canvas, a packet of five brushes, acrylic paint (red, yellow, blue, white and black) and are given 4 hours to complete their paintings for competition. The top 32 are selected by the online voting public (that's you). Then, there is a big, revelry filled show featuring all the qualifying paintings, and spotlighting the top 32. At the show, attendees vote via ballot to narrow the top 32 down to 16. The final 16 are then eliminated, bracket style. Two paintings are brought on stage, the semi-sober audience cheers their vote, and the decision is made by decibel level. The winning painting in each bracket goes on to the next round.

The losing painting gets the "Wheel of Death". Which is more or less what it sounds like. They pull out a big Wheel of Fortune style wheel, with labels like "chainsaw" and "blowtorch". The wheel gets a spin, and... that's what happens to the painting. Unless someone from the audience chooses to buy it right then, saving it from destruction.

The winner gets $4,000. The losers get 70% of whatever their painting sold for, if it was purchased. And a great time.

It's just a really fun idea. You should support it by going to vote.artvsart.net and voting for painting #20 (see above). Then coming to The Vogue in Indianapolis on September 27 at 8:00pm and cheering #20 on some more.

I had fun at "paint day". But it could have gone better. As watchers of this blog know, I should be able to crank out something better given FOUR WHOLE HOURS. I mean, that's a week worth of bag drawing time. so what happened? Excuses galore:

1) Your game. Some days, you are just not on it. I think perhaps I just wasn't on my game. All other excuses are contributing factors to that.

2) Acrylic paint. I haven't even touched the stuff in over 15 years. And even then, I rarely used acrylics. Never took to it. I kept trying to paint by instinct, which for me is to paint like I'm working in oils (which, admittedly, I also haven't done much with in the last 15 years, but at when I have, I've known what I was doing). Oil painting is a completely different ball-game.

3) Distraction #1. I had all my reference photos bookmarked online from my iPad. On my drive in, it occurred to me that *gulp* they might not have wifi access. When I got there and asked, they said there was a "no iPads, laptops or other electronic devices" rule. They even had little signs printed out all over (also discounting stencils, tracing, and the like). The bit about electronic devices was kinds of a game changer for me. It turns out, after asking up the food chain, that it was an old rule, that was really no longer considered an issue.

4) WiFi. They had none. Some of my reference was still open in various tabs. Just so long as I didn't click get the full size ima---oops. So I ended up pulling a lot of my reference from my phone. So teeny refereence. And I hadn't charged my phone the night before. So extra pressure.

5) Dsitraction #2. We were welcome to paint inside or go outside. Outside, I (and about 20 others) chose a nice park pavilion about 50 yards away. Which was great. Until two hours in, a man came up and announced that the pavilion had been reserved for a party, and we'd all have to pack ourselves up and leave. So distraction and a vital 10 minutes lost.

6) But mostly, I think, reason #1.

Regardless, I'm sure it will continue to be a fun ride. Go check out artvsart.net for more details I may not have covered. And while you're there, don't forget to register and vote for #20 ! (Too much?)