Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

The $61,500 question

What makes a piece of art superior? Judges can't define the answer, but one thing's for sure: Gasparilla artists long for a piece of the lucrative pie.

By ERIKA VIDAL and RICK GERSHMAN
Published March 3, 2006

DOWNTOWN - Few artists expect to get rich. But those who believe their works stand up against the best of the best have found the Gasparilla Festival of the Arts a rewarding place to test the notion.

This year the top prize winner, Best of Show, receives $15,000. The Board of Directors Award pays $7,500, the Mayor's Award $3,500, and so on. The smallest award is $1,000, which goes to 30 individual Award of Merit winners.

All told, this weekend's festival in downtown Tampa, now in its 36th year, will pay out $61,500 in prizes.

So what makes one piece of art a $15,000 winner and one a $7,500 winner? When you're judging something as subjective and personal as art, especially across a variety of media, how do you make that call?

Lyndel King judged the entries for the 2005 festival. How did she determine the difference between who gets $15,000 and $1,000?

"If you can find a formula for that," she said, "you'd be a rich woman."

It is an emotional and intellectual decision, said King, the director and chief curator of the Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum at the University of Minnesota.

Personal feelings matter, she said, but she mostly credits her decisions to 25-plus years of experience.

She embraces a challenging piece.

"It's like doing a hard crossword puzzle vs. an easy one," King said. "People who do them a lot generally don't like the easy ones."

She explained that professionals are trained to look at art - even art they don't personally enjoy - and judge its merits and content. They analyze the craftsmanship and expression of meaning, and how well the artist uses that particular medium.

King awarded the 2005 Best in Show to Transcendence of Hummingbirds, a painting by Suzy Scarborough of Columbia, S.C.

There was just something about the piece, King said. Something soft and mysterious. It was clear that Scarborough knew what she was doing.

Intuition is key.

"I think one misconception is if you don't spend 20 minutes looking, you haven't appropriately judged it," she said.

Having so many categories to judge makes it even more mind-wrenching: "You have to switch gears because you wouldn't necessarily judge a handmade broom and a painting the same way."

But it's not altogether apples and oranges. If you gathered a group of experienced art professionals, they'd probably agree with 80 percent of your decisions, King said.

Last year, Scarborough still was setting up her tent when she saw King ride by in a golf cart. King didn't stop at all, the painter said, just glanced over while the cart was moving.

But the next thing Scarborough knew, someone came by and took Transcendence from her tent to be added to the rest of King's selections for greater consideration.

That was right before the festival began. She remembers feeling relieved that even as she set up, she'd put her best piece right up front.

Scarborough, 47, thinks the painting's ambiguity earned its win.

"I like to leave a piece open to interpretation," she said. "It's got to appeal to people on a human level."

Scarborough's boyfriend, Andrew Webber, won Gasparilla's Best of Show in 2004. He makes all of his art with found objects, glue, polyurethane and automotive enamel.

Why did he choose that artistic path? Simple: "I can't draw or anything. And I felt early on that art is infinite in choices."

Marti Mayo, who judged the 2004 festival, took umbrage when a reporter referred to the judging as a competition.

"I think competition is exactly the wrong word," she said. "It's a juried show."

Mayo, director of the Contemporary Arts Museum in Houston, said she tries "to avoid festivals at all costs, but I was happy to do this one."

And how does she make her decisions? "I use the 40 years of experience that I have," she said. "The process is the process."

This year's juror is Neil Watson, a former curator of the Tampa Museum of Art.

"I've curated so many shows, I feel that I can really bring an even hand at looking at things," said Watson, now executive director at the Katonah (N.Y.) Museum of Art.

Watson said his decisions will be based on whether an artist "has really stretched and made something significant."

Good work, he said, "really has a presence. The work will have an integrity to it."

John Whipple's mixed-media assemblage Parade earned last year's $7,500 prize. But the Winter Park artist wasn't upset with runner-up honors. He won the award and subsequently sold the piece: "That was a good day."

He has some judging experience himself. One thing he recalled from working with a recent panel: "We didn't agree on anything, really."

But artists get used to the fact that different judges might love or hate the exact same piece of work and develop a thick skin, said Whipple, whose wife, Lynn, also has won the $7,500 Board of Directors Award.

"One week you can win, and the next you don't even get picked up" for judging, said Whipple, 48.

"The judge will have a certain aesthetic, and if you're lucky enough to be an artist that's in that aesthetic, you probably have a good chance of winning the prize."

Having a judge with a broad appreciation is important.

"You have to hope the judge has enough understanding about all the categories to make an informed decision," he said. "It's like in a dog show, how the judge has to know all the breeds. I'll give Gasparilla its due - they've gone out and gotten some really well-credentialed judges."

But ultimately, he said, it comes down to the personal feelings of whoever views the piece.

"Of all the people who come to the festival, maybe one-half of 1 percent might even be drawn to my work," he said. "No one can be the end-all for everyone. That's what makes art so wonderful for people."

Downtown Tampa comes alive with the arts this weekend.

- Gasparilla Festival of the Arts runs from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday along Franklin Street between Kennedy Boulevard and Polk Street. More than 300 artists will display paintings, ceramics, photography and more. About $60,000 will be awarded in prize money. Admission is free. Downtown parking is available. Go to www.gasparilla-arts.com

- Booty Art Expo, Tampa's first invitational contemporary art show is from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday at three downtown locations, including eight containers set up on Franklin Street between Kennedy Boulevard and Jackson Street. Other sites are the SkyPoint condo showroom at 400 N Tampa St. and AIA Tampa Bay at 200 N Tampa St., Suite 100. The show will feature artists from several galleries, including Bleu Acier, Brad Cooper Gallery and Covivant Gallery. Booty will close with a reception at Flight 19 from 7 to 11 p.m. Sunday at Union Station, 601 N Nebraska Ave. Call Nancy Kipnis at (813) 817-6731.

- In conjunction with Booty, Gallery AIA presents Iron-on Resistance, featuring paintings and prints. The opening reception is from 6 to 9 tonight at AIA Tampa Bay, 200 N Tampa St., Suite 100. Food and drinks are free. Call (813) 229-3411.

[Last modified March 2, 2006, 13:56:08]