American Impressionist Show 2015 Honorable Mention

Sometimes you’ll hear someone say: “I don’t mean to brag but…….”; well, you’re not going to hear that from me because I do mean to brag!  Diane and I just returned from the 2015 American Impressionist Juried show that was hosted by the Trailside Gallery in Scottsdale, Arizona.  If you’re interested, here is a LINK to the catalog for the show, there are many outstanding paintings.  Also, if you’re interested in art in general, allow me to share these links to  Diane’s gallery website and her blog where she talks about her work and process.  The title of this painting is The Day Begins.  Diane had hired a model for this photo shot at the Heritage Museum in Henderson.  This is one of those occasions where I got to be the chauffeur, props manager, and photographers assistant for her.  It’s so much fun to work together on our passions.

The American Impressionist show is a juried one and of the 1449 entries that were submitted, only 180 were accepted and hung.  That means Diane was among the 12.5% of artists whose work was accepted.  This meant that the odds of having your work accepted was pretty slim.  Next, I’m estimating that there were about 30 awards given out and she was awarded one of 12 Honorable Mentions for her painting.  Crunching the numbers means that she was in the top 15% of those accepted — don’t you think I have a reason to be proud of her and her work?  The judge for the show was Carolyn Anderson, an artist that Diane admires and one she took a workshop from her quite a few years ago at the Scottsdale Artist School.

You may be wondering what all those numbers and percentages are about but that’s a carry over from my long running career.  The first race I ran back in 1978 was a half marathon and I happened to place 220 out of 440 which, I noticed was exactly 50%.  As my running progressed to marathons and eventually ultra mountain runs this was how I kept track of my progress.  I figured that my chances of winning a 50 or 100 miler were pretty slim but by calculating my percentage it gave me a way to assess my progress among the others that entered that particular race on that particular day.  I’ve gone from 50% to the upper teens on various races.  Unfortunately, two unsuccessful knee surgeries and contracting Valley Fever during a 24 hour track run have ended my running career but it’s still cool to Google my name and see race results from the past.  I ran the numbers for Diane to show her that it’s not just me that thinks she’s a fantastic artist —  numbers and averages don’t lie!

I admit to unabashedly being her number one fan and, having that distinction also lets me be her framer, p.r. guy, gallery contact, artist furniture maker, and  photographers helper, just to name a few.  The frame you see on this picture is one I designed and carved.  It’s gilded with 22 karat gold leaf.  Going to the show last week and having the opportunity to be at its opening is always a lot of fun — a great experience that we enjoy sharing together.