The ―Artist
of the Month‖ topic for February was PEOPLE. The art submitted for the
competition,
appropriately enough, was as diverse as people themselves
–
and
the three
winning
creations were the result of very different inspirations.
First
place winner,
Linda
Philipian
,
told us how she came to develop her painting:
―
The
inspiration
Le
f
arni
or
ng
t
to
hi
sing
s
in
pi
the
st
ece
orm
‖
ac―
tually
came from another drawing of
joyful
women. I had sketched the dancing, joyful women but had not yet added their hair when
the thought
of strong women facing cancer and chemo…dancing joyfully, in bright cheerful
colors…came
It
is
t
ea
o
sy
m
t
e.
o
be joyful in good times, but difficult to be joyful when the
storms
come. Yet, every day we continue to see strong women (and men) singing through the
storm.
‖
Linda
Schubert
,
who took 2
nd
place
honors, told us what had inspired her: "This
watercolor
painting
- titled "Basket Lady"
–
is
from a trip to Charleston, South Carolina. We stopped on
Market
Street to look through the vendors shops. There were several ladies weaving beautiful
baskets.
I was very taken with them and the amazing workmanship. I wanted to photograph
the
ladies but they were either shy or superstitious and didn't want their picture taken. They did
allow
me to take a picture of the baskets. So I painted the baskets with a made up lady."
Gini
Dixon
,
whose photograph won 3
rd
Place,
explained that her photograph is representative
of
a type of portrait she has always admired and cited
Edward
Weston, Carmel Highlands,
California
(Portfolio
IV, 1945) by Ansel Adams as an example. Gini went on to say ―These
photos
are marked by a beauty that has no prettiness. The idea is to reveal something about
the
person in his own environment
—
not
artificially posed or glamorized. My son was hitching
his
boat trailer to his car when I took this. I like that his expression is
–
well,
plain. I have also
wanted
to work on black and white prints for quite some time as they communicate differently
than
color, so I converted the original photograph from color to black and white
