All-media show continues at MCAC

Corcoran professor selected, judged pieces

Friday, June 26, 2009

According to MCAC President Mary Swann, the organization sent out 1,500 calls for entries to the show and received 115 entries.

Juror Sheila Blake, adjunct professor of the Corcoran College of Art and Design in Washington, D.C., selected the final 83 pieces of artwork that are currently being exhibited.

There are 42 participants.

"The artists in this exhibit have all achieved a level of proficiency; some are more accomplished than others; some set more ambitious goals for themselves," Blake said in a statement released by the art center. "I have tried to familiarize myself with each artist's work, choose the strongest pieces and look for surprises, whether of sheer proficiency, original vision or simply beauty."

Blake said she was "impressed with the honest effort of each artist."

"The most personally satisfying part about judging this exhibition is that in this age of digital imaging and Photoshop, the need for actual hands-on visual expression is alive in us. There is a desire in each of these artists to express, in a visual language, that which cannot be expressed any other way," Blake said.

The show's opening reception was held June 14 with awards given by Blake.

"There's something for everyone," said Swann. "These artists range from professional to amateurs. There are all different styles of artwork. There's realism and abstract."

The art center is a "visual arts center for everyone in the county, open to everyone, art lovers as well as artists and art supporters," she said. "We are the only nonprofit art gallery in the county."

spoynor@somdnews.com