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| Howdy art lovers |
The Cotton District Arts Festival, held this past Saturday, 8 April 2017 from 9am to 4pm in the Cotton District area of Starkville, MS, was a great one. More art booths than ever, a beautiful day, and large crowds.
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| Joe and Joseph MacGown in their art tent! |
We had a pretty steady day and sold quite a few prints from postcard size to 12 X 18 inches, as well as a couple originals. This was only our second year of having a booth/tent at the festival, and we are learning a lot. One drawback to being new is that our tent is near the end of the line, and we noticed that many people never made it to us. However, we hope to gradually turn our end into a mecca for weird art lovers by bringing even more and cooler stuff next year. We may add an additional tent as well, because it was cramped in there.
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| Art enthusiasists |
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| Joseph selling a weird painting to the Brasfields of West Point, MS |
The wonderful juried show that is a part of the festival was held in the MSU Visual Arts building, which was basically right across the road from our tent! Ruth Miller, talented embroidery artist from the Jackson, MS area, was this year's juror. Each year, the arts council brings in a different juror. I only managed to get one entry of three into the show this year, and I partly blame the ridiculous entry rules for this, which state that digital images (submitted on a CD) be no more than 600 px in longer measurement. This restriction really hurts me because my large pieces are very detailed, and reducing them to that size essentially makes them look like a confusing mass of crazy. Oh well. Despite only having one entry, my "Pentamerous Archetypes" triptych won Best of Show! That purple ribbon is great, but the check that comes with it is even better. Each year, the show is different, in part due to selections made by the different jurors, but also as a result of who enters the competition. Some years we have had entries from several states, with professional artists and various art professors entering. This year, the show seemed to be very local with most of the pieces done by Starkvillians. I thought compared to some years, the show was a little weak due to the lack of more outside entries, but still good. This show has been very good to me, as I have won best of show 5 or 6 times and first in the painting/drawing division multiple times!
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| Pentamerous Archetypes, by Joe MacGown, Best of Show |
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