One of my ultimate goals is to one day participate in an Art Gallery showing of my Figure Nudes and Nudes in Abandoned Spaces series.  So… to that end, and at the encouragement of Ron Zak, I submitted two pieces for entry into the Fairfield Visual Arts Association’s 51st Annual Juried Art Show held in October 2014.

I have to admit that I had no idea what a juried art show was and / or how it worked.  So for those of you like me who do not know, here is a brief description of a juried show found on Wikipedia:

“A juried competition is a competition in which participants’ work is judged by a person or panel of persons convened specifically to judge the participants’ efforts, either by the competition’s stated rubric or by a subjective set of criteria dependent upon the nature of the competition or the judges themselves. For example, in a juried competition where participants compete against each other for a monetary prize, for inclusion in a show or publication, or for representation by a gallery, the work presented is judged by one or more persons, often experts, for such prize, inclusion, or representation.”

The pieces I entered were in the Black & White Photography category.  One of the pieces was a last minute selection which I was sure would not make it into the show.  The pieces had to be submitted at the show location on a Wednesday afternoon.  The actually jury took place the next day, Thursday.  The instructions to the entrants were if your piece(s) were selected for entry into the show, you would receive a call by 9:00 p.m. on Thursday.

So it was about 8:30 p.m. on Thursday evening and no call, so I started thinking that I had not made it into the show.  Oh… well, I can always try again next year I was thinking.  Then my phone rang at about 8:45 p.m. and it was a representative of the Fairfield Visual Arts Association.  Not only was 1 of my pieces was selected for the show, it also was selected as the 1st. place winner in the Black & White Photography category!  I was absolutely thrilled to say the least!

After this win, I am even more motivated to enter different shows and see how I do.  The winning piece from the show is the featured image of this post.