I’ve been wanting to say a few words regarding the Medalta International Cup show and the jurying process for a while now, but between being gone and figuring out exactly what I wanted to say it’s been hard.

But I do want to say a few things.

To start with – wow.
That was truly a difficult task.
A super fun task, but a difficult one.

As you can imagine, I spend most of my days looking at amazing ceramic art from around the world – guilty as charged, uber ceramic geek and addicted to the internet.  And there I was jurying this show and finding myself completely floored by the variety of works that were submitted. The quality, aesthetic uniqueness, and technical prowess of the applications was truly inspiring. We received applications from over 160 artists, most with 3 submissions to chose from. So basically I had to narrow the selections down to about a third of what was submitted.

I don’t say this to be discouraging. I don’t want you to take this info and think to yourself; well why should I apply for these things if its so competitive? It is competitive. I had hard choices to make and lots of great work wasn’t let into the show. It’s how it goes. And a different juror might have made very different choices. Maybe not. You’ll get to be the judge once the exhibition is up and I’d love to hear your thoughts about what got into the show.

I guess what I really should be saying here though is thank you.
Thank you to Medalta for inviting me to participate in this exhibition in this manner. It has been a great honor. I’m very excited to see this annual exhibition grow and evolve over future years into one of the best international juried shows. It’s about time Canada had one like this to call it’s own. Good on yah Medalta!

Thank you to all the artists that submitted work. It was a pleasure and honor to see and study your work.

And thank you all for all the support that you all give this blog on a daily basis. From humble beginnings back in 2007, this blog has grown in a manner I could have never imagined. And I look forward to many more years as a part of this incredible, growing online community.

As the Medalta Cup show gets closer you’ll get more updates here and i’ll be taking you behind the scenes of the exhibition when I head out to Medalta in early Sept for the opening. If you are at all able to attend this exhibition and event I highly encourage you to come and join us in celebration of the selected artists in the exhibition who showcase some incredible skills and artistic vision.

I’ll leave you now with a excert from the letter that went out to the artists who submitted work regarding my thoughts on the submissions.

xoxoxo
Carole