2022 Art Show Award-Winning Art

Judge's Comments

Thank you, Manito Art League, for the privilege and honor of being your awards judge for this year's wonderful exhibition. I am impressed, delighted and personally inspired by the overall creativity and quality of the many fine art pieces in this show. Thank you to every exhibitor and to the many volunteers and patrons it takes to nurture and continue the tradition of a quality exhibition like this. Everyone involved should be very proud!

Something we’re all interested in is how a judge makes their decisions. After all, art is very subjective. Trying to be objective, some of my criteria includes: good designing, skillful handling of the medium, uniqueness of vision and personal expression. Bottom line, I’m looking for “the head, the hands and the heart” of the artist.

Kathleen Conover
KathleenConover.com

Best of Show

Nancy Sickbert-Wheeler
“Night Life” - Glass enamel on etched copper

This is a most sensitively conceived art piece and a beautiful glimpse of the quiet life that happens at night. The delicate textures and intricate patterns in any medium would be enchanting but enamel on copper work is one of the most difficult materials to control and is masterfully handled. All three entries by this artist are consistent in personal expression, professionalism and any one would be worthy of Best of Show.

Merit Awards

Christine Alfery
“Visions are Like Maps” - Water media on cradled clayboard

This is an exciting acrylic painting, as are this artist's other two works. The artist has an excellent sense of her visual tools of pattern, color, value, mark-making, soft and hard edges. I love the energy, spirit and motion in “Visions are like Maps” and feel a message from her imagination that goes beyond words.

Phyllis Schuit
“Mother Tree” - Fiber Art

This is a wonderfully creative textile art piece full of up-close detail as well as a dramatic composition that holds its own across the room. The artist has incorporated pattern, texture and color of fiber and thread, etc., so skillfully it’s almost a 3D piece. Although on a quilted background this textile piece has transcended anything that might be called “quilt” into the realm of “fine art”.

Mary Burns
“Guardian of The Water: Asha De Los, Sri Lanka” - Hand-woven jacquard

What an incredible mastery of contrast: large-scale visual elements of design executed by the compliment of intricately detailed fibers. From across the room this appeared to be a striking, very large, black, grey, white photo. Then the surprise up-close reality that this is an intricately woven textile, with personal artistic content on top, makes it an award winner.

Karen Gleisner
“I Wait” - Hand cut paper sculpture

The artist has brought a centuries-old art form of delicate, lacy paper-cutting into our contemporary 21st century with authority and boldness! The stunning design grabs the viewer's attention from across the room. But up close, the fineness of craftsmanship, cut vs natural edges, subtlety of white on white and other details keeps us entertained and amazed.

Stephan Klemann
“Live Edge Pine Table with Decorative Inlay” - Wood furniture

I love the marriage of organic and structure! Natural elements, primarily wood, have been skillfully and beautifully structured into an art-table. The organic edge of the wood left in its almost-raw state is the final detail that gives a dominant nod to our natural environment.