Student Show

This semester's SAA sponsored student art show included a good mix of work from all different mediums. I felt like students seemed very interested in the show because there were so many pieces submitted. The juror was Karl Beamer, who many of us remember as one of our former professors from not too long ago. While I don't want to exclude anyone or their work from the show, or to criticize Professor Beamer's discretion, I feel as though a few too many pieces were accepted. Maybe this is just because I had to help hang them all. It just seems like space is limited in the gallery, even included the outer hallway, and like the exhibit was a bit crowded. But, complaints aside, all the work was great and it was an interesting show.

This year the SAA decided to do awards a bit differently. Awards given to each specific discipline were done away with, simply because sometimes only one person submits work in a given category. We felt that this wasn't really fair, even to those people, because it's not quite as exciting winning an award when you have no competition. Instead there were juror's choice awards, to be awarded at his discretion, and a best in show award for which there was a $50 gift card (the monetary prize was a new feature as well). Professor Beamer still seemed to give awards generally according to discipline, probably because that's the way it's been done for so long, but at least he had some freedom with his choices. Keith Seaman won best in show, and I feel that it was well deserved. I've always liked Inkfinger's work as a group, and Keith seems especially motivated with his own solo work. I was also a fan of this piece specifically.

Overall it was a good show, with lots of great submissions. I hope everyone had fun who submitted their work, and I'm really looking forward to next year's show (even though I won't be eligible to enter anymore :)).