Update on Hospital Art

Last week  I wrote about my upcoming jury session with Maine General Hospital in Augusta.  This past Monday, arriving a little early, I watched a couple of other artists toting art across the parking lot.  Lugging my own art into the lobby I was greeted warmly and led across the carpet to a boardroom. I was a bit surprised to see a jury panel of 5 men and 1 woman, who instructed me to line my art against the wall and take a seat.  This was my first real live jury session.  I’ve had my art juried many times, but always by submission of materials, not in person, so I didn’t know quite what to expect, but I pretended I did.  One of the first questions was where was I trained, or from where came my art degree.  This is the one big hole in my resume, and it was the first thing they asked!  I told them that I was self taught. 6 pairs of dubious eyes looked in my direction, and two of them picked up pieces of art and looked closer, and began talking quietly to one another.  Finally one of them asked “What exactly, is your medium?”  Now THAT is a question I can answer easily, since I get it all the time.  I told them it was a non-traditional mix of watercolor, ink, colored pencil and acrylics, and that one of the beautiful things about being self taught is that you don’t copy the techniques or styles of someone else (pretty much because you don’t know how, I was thinking).  The idea that I taught myself how to do what I do was very intriguing to them, and suddenly I felt the scale tip in my favor just a tiny bit.  This was followed by 30 minutes of questions, most of which I answered easily, since it’s pretty clear that I love trees, and I love what I’m doing, so I just told the truth.  Long story short, they told me I’d have to wait 30 days to see if I got in.  The very next night they called me and told me I was unanimously voted in and I have a 6 week slot next February in which to display 28 works of art in the halls of Maine General.  Go me!