By Sarah Sims
It was a colder night than most in Valdosta, Georgia, but my heart was warm with excitement and anticipation at the opening gallery that Tuesday evening. I finally arrived at the location, the Valdosta State University Fine Arts Building for the 2020 “Valdosta National All-Media Juried Competition”. I was worried about the lack of vehicles surrounding the area but was pleasantly surprised at the mass of people entering the gallery space. As the description on the wall panel stated there were paintings, sculptures, illustrations, and hanging reliefs. Thus, I began my journey through the maze of art.
This piece despite being place in the very back of the gallery won the heart of the judge. At first place was Caminos/Paths (Peublito Mosconi) by Valerie Aranda. The piece is acrylic on canvas, depicting people going in different directions. Some were walking, running, in groups, on bikes, riding scooters, and motorcycles, as well as dogs, chickens, and a peacock scattered throughout sitting, walking, and grooming themselves. Underneath the very paint itself was a string, paper origami cranes, and even torn lingerie. Lastly placed in the middle were three handcrafted flowers in the shade of lime green, turquoise, and dark grey, all of this being placed on top of a flat bright Forrest green background. Night Lights (Mind), by Timothy Short, is an oil on canvas painting. It appears as a collage of moments, poses, and facial expressions all surrounding the same protagonist, a young adult African American woman. The mind begins to visually divide the image into three sections in the colors of red, yellow, and blue spread on the canvas. These choices in color as well the size help aid in the amount of interest and inclination a person might feel towards it.
After viewing the large green painting, I felt more inclined to look at other works of color. Temple by Sarah DePetris was one of the examples of color, is a silkscreen on paper consisting of hyper realistic rocks in cold shades of pink, white, black, pale orange, purple, blue, and lavender. H. V. II a mixed Media artwork by Pearl Bryant was an abstract explosion of pigments from intense red to muted creams even a few chromatic gold and silvers imagine can most likely be found on this canvas. Kevin Sloan used the work The Mesa. The small piece was an acrylic painting of a landscape from what looks like Colorado. There are mountains faded in the background with yellow flowers in the foreground, and amid it all is a large black tire. The last painting is one that I personally found Rough Draft by Robert Schoolfield to be a captivating piece. It consisted of multiple mediums with abstract and well as recognizable illustrative elements. The canvas felt almost chaotic yet controlled due to the unification of specific colors spreading across the canvas. Bright translucent yellow, magenta, muted turquoise, intense orange, and black seemed to dance on top of the white paper. Underneath the color was writing used with different colors and utensils. I was privileged enough to see the back of the canvas which was a continuation of the work. It had a long paragraph written by the artist asking many questions that artist think throughout their career. What makes a work of art good? Why must I make art be beautiful for someone else? Who is anyone to say what art can be limited to? In his struggle of find answers, I felt an even greater admiration for this piece. The size though not as large as Valerie Aranda or Timothy Short still left a lasting impression on me.
Upon first entry I felt a little overwhelmed at the diversity in media as well as subject matter. Yet as I began viewing pieces, I found friends and others as well as myself going back to certain pieces. Works of scale and color felt to be the attention grabbers in this exhibition. Though as an overall, each and every piece went through a process of being chosen out of many other hundreds of artworks. Many of the artworks in this exhibition deserved their place among the exhibitions title “The Valdosta National”