Pat's News

Night before last there was a reception and opening of the 36th Annual Membership Exhibition at the Albrecht-Kemper Museum of Art in St. Joseph, MO. 73 artists from 28 cities covering a 5 state region entered a total of 139 artworks. The art was a juried competition and there were three judges who are professional artists (two with PhDs). One is an art critic, one owns a gallery and the third is an art professor at a university. They had viewed the works independently at different times and submitted their selections in writing to the curator of the museum.
After touring permanent collection of truly wonderful paintings and the exhibition entries (and snacking on hor d'oeuvres and wine), everybody assembled in the auditorium for the awards presentation. There were seven categories of art and each one had awards for honorable mention, third place, second place and first place. As the winners were announced and the comments by the judges read by the museum curator, an image of the work itself was projected on a big screen behind the stage. The largest, and therefore the last category, was Oil/Acrylic Paintings. There were four honorable mentions, then third place and second place. By that time I had given up on winning anything . . . and then I heard the curator say "And the first place winner is" and my name was announced and my painting was projected on the screen and I stopped breathing. I thought Vince was going to have to give me CPR to get my heart started again. Then everybody was applauding and standing. Now, to be perfectly honest, we all applauded at the end of every category and they were all standing because mine was the last award presented, so it was time to leave the auditorium . . . but it was a heady feeling anyway.
Nora Othic took first place in the Drawing Category, with Wanda Taylor taking both second and third place. Darrell Gardner had two oil paintings entered and his wife, Darlene, had a pen and ink. Gloria Gooch had two paintings and Richard Johnson had two watercolors. All in all the North Missouri Arts Council and Marceline were well represented and all of our art will be on display in the museum through February 21st. Sadly, mine was the only entry from Carrollton. Hopefully, it will be a different story next year . . . if we can get the artists here mobilized.