Ira Goldberg, Executive Director of the Art Students League of New York

Art Students League instructor Costa Vavagiakis with a student As the executive director of a prominent art school, I often serve on juries for art exhibitions and competitions. I also want to say at the outset that as a painter, I have also submitted work to many juried shows and have had my share of rejections as well as acceptances.  Recently I judged the Chelsea International Art Competition at  Agora Gallery, in which the works of 40 artists were selected for the exhibition and other venues. Several artists won cash awards, but hundreds of artists went away dejected, disappointed, or with only the minor satisfaction of having tried and failed.

For those artists the questions arise, “Why didn’t I win? How can they not see how good I am?  How can I do better next time?” Of course, the essential issue behind these questions—“What is art?”—is a subject more appropriate for 150,000 words than for 1,500. Below are some thoughts about getting back to work after a disappointment and getting ready for the next submission.
   

Momentum - Acrylic on Canvas 41'' x 31'' Kristina Garon's paintings have undergone sweeping evolutions over the course of her journeys. Born and raised in Lithuania, she attended the Academy of Art in Vilnus, where a traditional arts education resulted in early works that displayed the formalism of mythic subjects and classical perspective. Already, though, her paintings featured a dynamism and whimsy that tested the limits of conventional composition. Garon manipulated physical and temporal continuity, spaces bent, melted and broke, and abstraction seemed to be a barely contained force lurking at the canvas's edges.

In more recent works, Garon – now based in Washington D.C. – has moved towards an abstract expressionist style that often includes figurative details. Swelling shapes and rhythmic patterns arc around silhouetted characters, as colorful movements form familiar images. Throughout, Garon deploys a playful, free-associative approach, including small figurative details without ever making them the focus of her boldly kinetic compositions. Instead, movement, texture and color guide our eyes. Alternating between thick and delicate brushstrokes, drip painting and scraping, the surfaces of Garon's canvases take on a variety of tactile qualities, catching light, adding hues and dimensions. Often, reverberating sonic patterns create a musical resonance whose notes are the bright colors of Garon's palette. "I'm an incurable optimist and this quality is reflected in my paintings," she explains, "no negative thoughts or depression here." Indeed, her most muted works still betray this irrepressible positivity.