Friday, February 1, 2008

Gambling on juried shows

Does it ever seem to you that the act of entering a juried art show has a lot in common with going to a casino?

You enter a bright, active room filled with enticing possibilities. (Viewing lists of calls for entries.) You select the game that suit your fancy, that makes you feel lucky. (You pick from among the juried shows the one or ones that fit the style and/or themes of your work.) You open your wallet and plunge in, hoping for the best. (Most juried shows have those pesky entry fees.)

Hopefully your talent gives you all the luck you need, but jurors' or juries' tastes can be hard to predict, no matter how much research you do. (Steve Martin advised, "Be so good that they can't say no," but that's easier said than done in a world governed by personal taste.)

I'm looking up at the clock right now and realizing I've just spent hours preparing applications for 3 juried shows. (No wonder my fanny has fallen asleep.)

Have we really come that far from sticking little labels all over our slides to conform to the individual requirements of each show? It still takes time to resize each jpg for various shows and burn the CDs. Not to mention first combing through the works you have available to see what might suit each show best. Not to mention filling out all the paperwork.

So why do I do it at all? Because I'm one of those people who gets off on imagining what great things might happen in the future (I told you it was like gambling). Frankly, I LOVE acceptance letters.

Well, time to seal up the envelopes and trust my luck! It feels like dropping a coin in a slot machine.

No comments: