DUKE WINDSOR, JUROR’S STATEMENT

2017 Memberhip Exhibition

Let me begin by thanking the Guild President, Angelika Villagrana,  the exhibition committee staff and volunteers, for asking me to juror the Artist Guild Show at Gallery 21.   I must say jurying this show had its’ challenges, because each one of these works were wonderful.

I commend every artist that submitted, accepted or not.  It takes great courage and humility to be willing to place your works on display and to be “judged” by a peer on whether you will be placed in an exhibition, or whether you’d receive an award, or not. 

All of the exhibition veterans are familiar to this process, understand this is a subjective process and a juror’s decisions are “in the moment” and could change on another day.  However, I didn’t take this task lightly, and I made sure I gave equal consideration to each work during my initial review as I did during my second and third pass.  

My initial review was the “in the moment” initial excitement of the work that pulled me into the artist’s mind quickly.  Did it “speak” to me?  Is it enough to make it to the next round of review? Where’s the “wow” factor?    At this stage I would begin taking notes and score the artistic merit between 5-10.   A score of 7 moves that piece to the next review.  

During my next review, I look at the technical skills, application and composition.  These are scored between 5-10.   Pre-honorable mentions are noted.  A score of 7 moves that piece to the final review and awards selection.

My final review is of the whole exhibit once more and the verify my initial reviews.  Here, I will make changes in selections, if necessary, as in this show, I made four changes from the intial selection.  At this point I begin to select my actual Honorable Mention selections.   I then select my third-place selection.  Then the final two pieces I’d spend quite a few minutes in reviewing before finally choosing the first and second-place winner. 

This was for me a very humbling experience from which I have a deeper appreciation.

Thank you, artists.

-Duke Windsor, Juror

October 28, 2017