It Doesn’t Belong There, Oil on Canvas, 152 × 76cm
Self-doubt is a constant presence for me when creating a painting, especially if the aim is to enter that painting in a competition. But yesterday I took a deep breath and pushed the SUBMISSION button.
The competition is the Heysen Landscape Art Prize and you would be forgiven for thinking it’s about bucolic scenes and pastoral vistas.
It is definitely NOT.
A quick search on the internet for past winners and finalists of this competition show everything but. From Kafkaesque short films to felt made forms - everything is considered AND are competing against each other for the main prize.
BUT how do judges make their choices between these different modes of expression and how do they weigh them up against each other in terms of Good, Better, Best? How can you compare a painting with a clay vessel or a sculpture with a drawing?
I don’t envy their job.
But then it does make me wonder why put these multifarious art works up against each other for a prize? Why can’t they be categorised and recognised in their own fields? Well that would be a completely different process; lengthy, expensive and infinitely more difficult.
Making the competition open to a variety of different mediums could be interpreted as inclusive and, after all, it is does make for an interesting exhibition of the finalists works.
STILL, it does make entering my ‘Painting’ questionable and with every mark I made with my palette knife or brush I couldn’t help thinking that this was no way to make art .
So I concentrated great efforts to force the negative thoughts out of my stressed-out brain. But they kept coming back;
“It’s not edgy enough.”
“It’s not contemporary enough."
“Not brave enough.”
“Not GOOD ENOUGH.”
All this dialogue going on was interfering with the creative process, or was it a necessary part of it?
Friends kept saying; “Hey you have nothing to loose.” But in my mind I would answer; “Except loosing face and having all my fears that the work is not … enough confirmed. Oh and the $55 submission fee.” But other than that, sure nothing to loose.
And so I write the Artist Statement (which is another topic for this Blog) and make my entry.