The judging has come and gone and after 13 and a half hours I was completely exhausted. Unfortunately, if my health problems do not improve, this year will be my last. I am sick, AGAIN.  And we all know what that means...missed, work, another doctor's office visit and more medicines. ugh.

Coal Fair Pikeville:

Some photos from the event and a few standouts pieces, IMO. Students do not know yet who won/did not win, so I can not share that information. 

The grand prize overall winner of the fair categories combined, will receive an all expense paid trip to Myrtle Beach, where they will be recognized for their entry, and scholarship money for points earned in judging. The winner will take home a gift package of over $3,000 dollars including his judging points that earn $. The other regional level top 3 winners in their categories also receive monetary gifts as well. Why wouldn't you want to participate in this event opportunity?

Enjoy the images.

Pay close attention to this entry.  At first it might not seem so impressive, but the creative and original  aspect is that the artist used screws to create the person in varying depths. Pretty cool. 

This piece is very impressive with only minor perspective issues. The major issues are that often these artists focus on the central part of the image they are creating and then get lazy with the backgrounds. And, the hardest lesson for all of us to learn with charcoal....when to quit, otherwise, you have a muddled disappointing piece. All artists struggle with these issues,  THESE are things we all learn along the way! 

If there is one piece of advice I could hand them to is PRESENTATION of their work. This particular piece has been smudged, in numerous places which are very visible even in this photograph. Why they didn't frame this piece behind plexi-glass is beyond me. 

Another great drawing, unfortunately a common image from google,
albeit only minor issues which time and practice will fix

Now this one, pleasantly surprised me
The artist's concept was great, the execution...meh. 

This is another non original image, but that being said, the artist was either 13 or 14 years old!
Pretty impressive, another overworked piece, but again, that is learned by practice.
I hesitated on how to judge this piece, why you wonder? Look at the curled up image in a too large mat.....sigh

This piece caught my eye right away. Not so much for the fantastic art, nor the impressive way they imbedded the story
but because of its uniqueness, great story, relevance to the fairs theme and the nice crisp presentation. 

At first glance this piece looks like someone covered Tonka toys in clay right? Not so. The young man came in and presented this piece of sculpting and when I questioned him on his creative process, he was very well spoken and told me he used chicken wire to create his forms to adhere the clay to.
Now are you more impressed? I was. 

This is a photo of most of the entries in our category
As you can see we must judge everything from crayon drawings, story boards, paintings, jewelry to quilts!
Not an easy task

I was never able to incorporate all of the images they stretch from one side
of the college gym to the other and down the left side. 

I really liked this lawn sculpture idea, it was fun, whimsical and greatly executed

I hope you enjoyed a short tour of the coal fair exhibits. If you have any questions or curiosity about CEDARINC.ORG click here for more information. If your area offers an opportunity to participate, encourage your children to do so. You can request educational packets from their site.

I will close here, but before I go, let me point out that a lot of these children do not even have access to art instruction. Some get to take a few classes when they are older, but are limited in opportunities. So, I am sure you can imagine that their art teachers are stretched thin, work on shoe string budgets, and are forced to handle classes larger than what is recommended. I realize all schools are undergoing budgetary cuts, but studies and applications of music and art and foreign language programs consistently prove that children who are exposed to arts out perform students who are not.

Whats to think about here?? For more information on this you can begin with this site. WWW.DOSOMETHING.ORG 

*steps down off soap box*

Peace,

Valerie