Award Winning

My brother just recently completed his Master's degree in art, and he's slowly starting to feel his way toward progress as an artist as well as a teacher. He submitted two of his works to a local competition, the Artists Who Teach exhibition, and was excited that both of them were accepted. So of course I wanted to go to the exhibition's opening reception this weekend.

It was an honor for John's work to have been selected, and I think he was hoping for one of the Honorable Mentions or Awards of Merit, so that he could have that to add to his resume and portfolio.

He was up against some pretty stiff competition. According to the program, there were 102 works of art by 64 artists -- out of which 13 would win awards. A lot of the pieces at the show were just fantastic, really beautiful and full of emotion and feeling. There were even a few that I gave some serious thought to purchasing.

John didn't get an Honorable Mention or an Award of Merit.

He got third place.

Third place. The very first juried exhibition he's ever entered, and he walked away with third place and a cash prize!

That's my little brother, the award-winning artist.

(I've said that about forty bajillion times since the awards were presented, and I'm not tired of it yet!)

Needless to say, the whole family was thrilled all to pieces, and we're enormously proud.