37th Annual McNeese National Works on Paper Exhibition

PURCHASE AWARDS

• Jason Franz, 2024_2_7 (Bolton Ford Purchase Award)
• Stephanie Glen Ducasse, One-Line Self Portrait (Lynne and Richard Reid Purchase Award)
• Jacob Crook, Nightrise V (Purchase Award in Memory of Dr. Michael Kudla)
• Jenna Youngwood, Cumulonimbus Cloud with Rainbow (Purchase Award In Memory of Muriel & T.H. Mayes)
• Michelle Martin, Conserved (Purchase Award in Memory of Gedge Gayle Sr.)
• Yuji Hiratsuka, Foul Bite, Happy Accident (Purchase Award In Memory of Lucy Brown Winfree)
• Camille Vizena, A Vessel for the Community -Roishetta Ozane (The Friends of Oili K. Barchack Purchase Award)
• Larry Sheffield, Study of a Kintaur 1(Gary Porter Memory Purchase Award)
• Nancy Daly, Tri-Tone Sunset (McNeese Student Art Association Purchase Award)

JUROR’S MENTIONS

• Jacob Mitchell, Shades of Primary
• Marc Sirinsky, You Can’t Unring the Bell

JUROR’S STATEMENT

It was a true pleasure to serve as the juror for the 37th Annual McNeese National Works on Paper Exhibition. I was impressed with the high quality of all of the submissions, which made the task of narrowing down 696 entries to just 70 works by 70 different artists both a challenge and a pleasure. The French artist Henri Matisse is famously quoted as stating, “Creativity takes courage.” Indeed, the act of making art is in itself a courageous act, as making aspects of our interior life—whether emotion or imagination—tangibly visible is a terrifying prospect on face value. Requiring even more bravery is the act of then sharing those works with others. Every artist who submitted to this year’s exhibition is to be lauded for not only their willingness to share their work with others, but also their openness to allowing their work to be evaluated by a critical eye.

In making these selections, I was looking for both originality and mastery of the artist’s chosen medium. Did the artist show us something we haven’t seen before? Did the artist offer a new perspective or twist on a familiar subject? How well did the artist utilize their materials and did they show evidence of superior craftsmanship? All of the artists selected for inclusion in this year’s show demonstrated both their creativity and inventiveness, as well as their commitment to excellence in execution.

I will also confess a certain bias–or perhaps more accurately–a juror’s prerogative in the works I selected. Although not exclusively, I tended to gravitate toward pieces that incorporated bold colors, as well as striking patterns and geometric elements. On the other end of the compositional spectrum, one will notice that several of the chosen works are powerful in their utter simplicity, consisting of a single object or shape as their focal point. Another theme that emerged in this year’s selections are works that convey a strong sense of place, whether real–such as a small corner of an urban landscape–or imagined. Last, and perhaps not surprising given that the human form has been depicted since the dawn of art making, many of the chosen works find their subject matter in the body, either in its entirety or in excerpted elements. In these works, I looked for innovation: portraits that pushed compositional boundaries and figure studies that defied convention.

I would like to thank every artist who submitted to this year’s exhibition and offer my heartiest congratulations to all whose work was selected, as well as kudos to the individuals chosen for the distinction of purchase awards and juror’s mentions.