I had a recent thread asking for people to help me name some artwork I was submitting to a juried exhibition. I promised to let everyone know how it went, so here it is. Shamelessly cribbed from my LJ:
So I had painting class tonight, technically, from 6:30 to 9:15. That conflicted with the opening of the Juried Student Art Show, however, and in addition to wanting us to attend, our teacher was also a presenter at the reception. So instead of having “real” class, we met at 6:30, chatted for half an hour, then went over as a group to the Sturgis Gallery (it’s in the library building on campus) to attend the reception. As I mentioned earlier, I submitted four pieces to the show, and all four were accepted.
All of the people who had works in the show had nametags waiting at the entrance, so that people would know who was who; so I wasn’t surprised when a couple of fellow students said “congratulations” to me when I walked in. The reception had a really great turnout; there were people everywhere. Another friend of mine said “congratulations” to me, and I smiled and said thanks, but it did seem a little strange to me for everyone to be so very congratulatory over getting your work in the show. I figured maybe it was that I had four pieces in–nobody else had that many, though several people had three. I started looking around at the artwork, but I was keeping my eye out for my stuff so I could see where it was.
The first of my pieces I saw was this one. Yay! I checked to make sure they spelled my name right, and the name of the piece (“Chromaticism”).
Nearby I found my photography entry (it’s the middle one, Afternoon Reverie)
That’s when I spotted the extra tag above the ID tag: Honorable Mention - Photography
Aha! I made sense now, the congratulations! I was kind of excited that I won something, and smiled as I continued through the gallery.
One of the other painting teachers–not mine, but I know him from the department–saw me and came over. “Hey! I saw the paintings we’d talked about,” he said. (I’d shown him early stages of the paintings I entered). “And hey, congratulations!!!” He seemed a little more enthusiastic than I’d have expected from an art professor congratulating a student on an honorable mention… I was starting to wonder what was up…
“Uh… what for?” I asked.
“Oh, you haven’t seen?” He asked.
“Seen what…?” I asked.
“Oh, well let me show you,” he said, and led me into another part of the gallery. There I saw my two oil paintings, hanging side by side: oooh fancy!
(second and third from the right are mine)
Cool! I thought, and walked over to them. He stood back as I went over…
…I noticed an extra label above the ID tag of Leaving Chinatown! Oh man, did I win something else?! I walked closer.
And saw this:
!!!
I started to shake almost immediately. I could barely speak. I thought I might cry. I was totally freaking out. I took a picture with my phone of the tag and tried to send it to Dan and my mom, but I had no phone reception… that’s ok, I needed to get some air anyway! I went outside and sent the picture and stayed outside for a few minutes, practically vibrating and trying not to cry. I finally regained enough composure to go back in.
That’s when I realized that my promoter had been working in overtime in my absence. Dominic was telling everyone he recognized that “my mom won Best in Show!” One of my classmates, who had placed in one of the categories came up to me laughing. He said that Dominic had asked him what he won, and he told him (I don’t remember what it was… but it was first, second, or third place in one of the categories). Dominic asked “is that like Best in Show?” and he told him “no…”. “Oh. My mom won Best in Show!” he told him. Oh dear. It was very cute, though. It’s really sweet to see him so proud of me.
Dan’s parents showed up about 10 or 15 minutes later, and I went over to welcome them. Joyce asked me to show them my stuff, so I walked them through (but I didn’t say anything). They congratulated me when we got to the photograph with the honorable mention. When we got to the paintings, she saw the tag next to Leaving Chinatown and did a doubletake. She pointed at the tag. She pointed at me. Then her eyes teared up and she was trying not to cry. I can’t even explain what was going on in my heart at that moment… this is a woman I’m desperately wanting to become family, and I’ve always been insecure about how she and Andy viewed me. I’m far from perfect and I know there have been times when they probably wished their son was dating someone else. To see her have an emotional response like that; to see her be proud of me… it was amazing. It almost made me cry all over again. I can’t even remember what she said, but she was wiping tears from her eyes and hugging me. Andy hugged me too. If you’d given me a little push, I’d have floated up to the ceiling.
They stayed for the awards presentation (which was kind of long and probably boring for them, because first there was a speech, then there were introductions, then they gave away a bunch of scholarships, then they introduced the juror, then they gave away the certificates for the first place winners in each category, and then finally culminated with presenting the award for Best in Show) and we finished looking through the exhibition. It was so neat to have someone “there for me”… I don’t have any family around here, and the only friends I have here are fellow art students who are there anyway for themselves. The previous exhibitions I’ve gone to…well, I see people there with their parents in tow, or their boyfriends/girlfriends… and it made me feel lonely. It was really nice to have people there to support me.
Anyway, I’m riding a wave of warm fuzzies tonight, bigtime. The $15 Honorable Mention gift certificate and the $200 Best of Show check don’t hurt, either!
Album: Pictures from the Reception
Congratulations.