What makes for a successful Plein Air Painting competition

After a lot of thought, I’ve decided to summarize some of the criticism I’ve heard from artists in my community towards local events in Wisconsin. I’ve also added some suggestions that I think would make these events better. I do this knowing that I may lose some friends among those who organize these events, but I also do this because I truly believe that if the artists involved don’t speak up, things will never improve.

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Fox Valley Plein Air Painting Competition

Last weekend was the Fox Valley Plein Air painting competition. This is a new event, hosted by both the Jack Richeson corporation in Kimberly, WI, and the Bergstrom-Mahler Museum in Neenah, WI. I want to say outright that I was pretty excited for the opportunity to paint in a new area of the state, and glad of the generosity of Richeson. After visiting the museum a few weeks ago for the Wisconsin Plein Air Painting exhibition, I thought this event would have potential. Unfortunately I was wrong, the trip was largely an expensive disappointment.

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Milwaukee Art Museum – China Exhibit

China Exhibit at the Milwaukee Art Museum - and stupid policies.

I was told today, in a rather contrite manner, by a suit-wearing rent-a-cop with a plainly smug expression, that there was no photography in the main exhibit at the Milwaukee Art Museum. Have I mentioned before that I am a devout Libertarian? It would be an understatement to say that I have a problem with authority, especially stupid authority. So, let me share with you some photography:

Last month I decided that to see the Milwaukee Art Museum’s China Exhibits which were being discussed on public radio. After doing some research I learned that the Art Museum has free admission on the first Thursday of every month. I thought that would be a great opportunity. It was a mistake.

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A = A

What is going on here?

Exactly how are we valuing our art?

One’s expectation of reality should never interfere with their ability to perceive reality.
– Richard Schmid

Before I talk about how the Cedarburg Event wrapped up, what my results were, I want to tell you about a conversation that I had shortly after the event closed, which I am still contemplating, and my criteria for evaluating a painting.

Just prior to attending the artist post-event party thrown by the remarkably generous Shoenenberger home, I was congratulating the awarded artists whom I knew, which inevitably ended up in long conversations about art. The last of these involved my friends Brian and Bonnie, both of whom are more established artists than I, both of whom won awards.

We ended up discussing the judging of the event, and at one point I expressed an opinion that good paintings are good paintings because they rise to a standard that is recognizable. By this I also meant that there is a standard by which to evaluate the value of a painting, or towards which to strive for excellence, regardless of style. I did this while inwardly reasserting to myself that if my paintings were better, they would have been recognized and they would more likely have sold.

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Monday was a very Black Day

http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/jsonline/obituary.aspx?page=lifestory&pid=152146579

Ah, I feel like I’ve lost another father. Monday, it was a very black day. On this day, my mentor, my teacher, my friend, the man who inspired my passion for the tradition of painting, and taught me the difference between “of” and “about” and the rudiments of critical thinking on visual terms — Ron Bitticks, passed away.

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2010 Weapons of Moroland T-shirt Design

Well, after many, many hours, this project is nearly done. Many years ago, I did a design in Photoshop, where I tried to do a Tromp l’oeil illustration of a very famous plaque. This type of plaque is quite common among schools that teach the Filipino Martial Arts. You can see my original version here, as a poster.

Since then, I was contacted by John Malmo who is the administrator for the website www.MyFMA.net. John wanted to organize a community T-shirt project, where different schools would donate funds to having a really nice T-shirt silk-screened. He had seen my previous image on my website. The problem was that I had lost the original artwork in a hard drive crash. That being said, the original version would not have been silk-screenable, having way too many color gradations.

I told him I could redo the artwork, but it would take time. After some struggling, I was able to reduce the image to a 7 color silk-screen print. It’s nearing completion, as I write this I’m working on the color separations. The front of the T-shirt will have a star shape and the names of the contributing schools and communities. If you’re interested in getting one, check out the site for more info. These will definitely be collectors items as it will be a limited edition run.


Update:

It has recently come to my attention that some jackass online has stolen my artwork for use on his site. You can see the version he has here. You can see my original design here. I know for a fact that there is no other design out there that has these elements:

  1. The central shield shape has the image of Chief Lapu-Lapu, an historical figure in Filipino culture. This image was taken from a photograph lent to me by my friend Greg, who went to the Philippines in 2005, and shot this image on Mactan Island.
  2. There are many Moroland plaques out there, but none have these swords, in this alignment, with both axes (the patul and the capa-capa), AND the black banner where it says “Philippines”
  3. Last, the lighting and shading used in the shields in particular, are quite distinct.

It is quite obvious that this person or his web designer simply found a small version of my image on Google or somewhere similar, knocked out the background, and then put it on his site.

Please join me in contacting this person and requesting that he remove this image from his website. This is blatant copyright infringement. His name is Mark Mikita and can be reached at mark@fightology.com or at 11520 West Washington Blvd., Los Angeles, CA, USA 90066 or by phone at (310) 754-5517.

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