Please understand that I felt this way before I found out about the results and said so some months ago. These were good judges and the results are better than ANY art show I can recall. I'd welcome hearing from anyone about any completely open art show where the judging was better. Look at for instance the International Artists magazine comps. Look at the Artists magazine comps looked at in the National Academy of Design show. Look at the OPA National Shows. The honorable mention awards at ARC are way better than most of these others Best of Show.
This happened for two reasons. (1) Good listed judges begets good artists throwing their hats into the ring. (2) Good judges choose good work. Now, I will never know what was entered and did not win. Maybe I would have trouble with the results if I did know. However, as I said, these winners are far better than any open show I've ever seen. I challenge all of you to list a better open show anywhere with better results! The artists that win other shows are often embarrassing. One lady that won the famous "Arts for the Parks" show $25,000 first place, said about her silly painting that won first place: "Wow! I was so happy to win! This was only my 3rd painting!" I swear that's what she said. The judges were printers, framers and gallery people - not highly skilled famous painters. Things perfect themselves and the ARC show will improve next year. But let's appreciate that this was about as good as a show has been done.
