Judging Revisited

Nebula Obscura Pulchra

number 10 in the Star Field series

from the collection of Patricia Toulouse

Yesterday was the November meeting of the Sandia Mountains Chapter. It was a good meeting, if I do say so myself. It was disappointing that the Smocking Guild was not able to put on their program as scheduled, but I had told Rita, our program chairman, that I was able to put on my judging/payback program at short notice. As it was, I had about two weeks to get it planned and executed.

Carole Rinard was instrumental in helping me do this, even though she was not able to attend (she is off in some exotic locale of sun and fun). It was her wonderful collection of original needle art that enabled me to do this on the scale I had first imagined. She lent me thirteen pieces of her collection that I used as the "gallery" from which the group judged.

For many in the group, it was the first time they had the experience of judging. It can be a heady responsibility. I had the fourteen works (at the last minute I added one of my own works), on a table along a wall with only their titles given. For the first round, people were just supposed to pick the one they liked the best, one they would like to take home with them. (This was a dangerous instruction--the works were tempting enough to really want to carry home.) I had a scribe take down all the information for this round of judging and we came up with a sort of Judges' Choice.

We had a discussion about it with many lively comments. There was total group participation and many people wanted to add more in the discussions. The pieces themselves were not discussed. We only talked about the process, how it went, what was difficult, et cetera.

In the second round of judging the eighteen members were divided into groups of three. Each of these groups had one criterion for which to judge again. The criteria were: color, design, contemporary expression, best presentation, technique, and illusion of space. These are not easy things to judge for. Other instructions were to judge exclusively for the one criteria, ignoring all personal prejudices and preconceptions about which piece was best or a favorite.

The second round went splendidly. Each group marked their first through third place winners. Again the scribe took the tally and we came up with a best of show. It was a piece that I would never had chosen myself, but the judging process cannot be denied.

As someone in the group said, the pieces we were judging were pre-picked, that is juried, by the choices of mainly one woman. They were all contemporary art by professional needle artists. As a group they were very stimulating to see and to discuss and to judge.

I received many compliments for the program, all positive. I was able to pay back the scholarship that I was given by the group. And I was given the pleasure of seeing this through to a very satisfactory ending. The one piece that I put in that was my own (I had another piece in that belongs to Carole) was sold from this little gallery, delighting me to no end.