A couple months ago, I was given an entry form for the BMO1stART! competition from my professor Tony, and he chose three individuals from 3rd year, me included in his selection to enter into this competition. which is pretty fucking cool i must say, since I'm never chosen for anything like that ever. (this picture being the piece I entered into the competition).
here's a little info:
BMO Financial Group's 1st Art! Invitational Student Art Competition celebrates the creativity of art students from post-secondary institutions across Canada. Deans and instructors of undergraduate certificate, diploma, and degree programs in visual art are invited to select from their graduating classes three students, whose ability and imagination place them 1st among their peers. A distinguished selection committee chooses a national winner and one winner from each eligible province and territory.
The national winner receives $5,000 and the regional winners each receive $2,500 for his or her artwork. The national winner’s work will become part of BMO’s corporate art collection, which includes historical and contemporary Canadian masters such as Kenojuak Ashevak, Emily Carr, Paterson Ewen, Tom Forestall, Marc-Aurèle Fortin, Lawren Harris, Thaddeus Holownia, David Milne, Margaret Priest, Denyse Thomasos, Ian Wallace and others. All winning entries will be on display at the 1st Art! 2010 exhibition, held at the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art in October 2010.
My artist statement for this competition and for my final display we're pretty much the same, however I went into more detail about my painting "Riot" in the statement for BMO, i've never really been good at writing these so I hope that they understand what I'm talking about . ...
Artist Statement (For BMO1stART entry)
In this process of oil painting, the first layer starts it’s development as geometric abstractions which are then made to support very loose and gestural layers of Oil paint. A mark is established on the canvas, which is then given a great deal of carefully calculated drying time, then followed by the attentive semi-removal and blending of gestural marks. A rhythm is created with the continuous layering of vibrant colour. The layers of colour are then blended out and refined with a gestural mark, which is then blended out again and then refined to a more focused mark. Another layer of smaller marks is added to create a steady movement around the canvas. This painting in particular is based on the constant commotion if marks and lines; these lines are then mimicked with a vale of small marks. With this piece an anxious tone is put forth with the use of red and orange and its apposing colours underneath.
