The Brownwood Art Association will be seeking entries for their first ever Christmas Photo Contest in conjunction with the Christmas Under the Stars Festival on December 2nd and 3rd at the Depot Civic and Cultural Center, 600 E. Depot St.

The contest is open to photographers 8 years old and up with prizes awarded in categories of ages 8-14, ages 15-20, ages 21 and above, and professional. Special prizes for People’s Choice and Best “Scared of Santa” photo will also be awarded.

There is a $5 fee per entry, and photographs will be accepted at the Depot on Monday, November 28th from 1-4pm and Tuesday, November 29th from 6-8pm. All photos must be framed with wire or hook and be ready to hang.

The photos will be on display at the Depot on Friday, December 2nd and Saturday, December 3rd from 4-8pm during the Christmas Under the Stars Festival.

For more information, contact Kim Hurt at 325-200-6404 or go to BrownwoodChamber.org.

You can pick up an entry form at the Brownwood Chamber of Commerce or download it here.

Here is my Funny Photo entry which won second place at the Brownwood Reunion Photo Contest. I had the idea for this image and thought it would turn out great with just a little bit of planning. It took about an hour and half to set up and shoot all the images for the final composite. It ended up taking 11 separate images layered together in Photoshop to create the final image.

I expected the image of Archer to take the longest, toddlers are notoriously difficult to photograph but he was quite cooperative. It ended up being the beer spray that took multiple take to capture properly, that and the grill flame took considerably more lighter fluid to reach an appropriate height than I had originally estimated.

Many art forms mimic the artistic mediums that came before it. Portrait photography is a way to paint a subject with light and has always been very influenced by the previous predominant form of portrait art, painting. I know it’s very popular right now for photographers to over expose an image to get that overly bright faded look. But the resulting blown highlights and loss of shadow in a lot of images I see make me long for the drama and visual texture brought by the rich shadows of an old masters painting.

In my own personal work I decided to explore the quiet, low key portrait. I wanted to produce a Vermeer-eque or Rembrandt-inspired portrait that would exhibit a quiet strength and draw the viewer in through subtle texture and the play of light and shadow. With my ever faithful model Leslie (my incredibly trusting and patient sister) and a few You Tube video on scarf tying I produced the following image. I am quite happy with the results and after entering it in the Brownwood Reunion Photo Contest, won first place in the Professional Division.

Hey all, don’t forget to enter your very best photographs in the Brownwood Reunion Photo Contest sponsored by the Brownwood Art Association. Photo bugs ages 8 and up have a chance to win prizes and show off their work at the newly renovated Art Center at 215 Fisk. Entries are only $5 so enter as many images as you like! We’ll be taking entries today from 6pm-8pm and tomorrow 1pm-4pm at the Art Center. We have entry forms and pens at the Art Center so just make sure your images are framed and ready to hang. See y’all there!

I’m excited to announce that for the 4th year in a row I have had one of my artworks accepted into the Star of Texas Juried Art Exhibit. Competition is fierce and comes from all over the state, so I feel honored to be included with the other very talented artist in the show this year.

The piece selected is called “Frozen” and is a photograph of dead sunflowers collected on a trip to the dumpster behind my house if you can believe. Inspiration really is everywhere. Through careful composition and lighting the fragile and beautiful form of the plant is highlighted, and the black and white conversion lends it a haunting air of mystery I think. If you’d like to see it in person (and place you vote for People’s Choice- hint,hint) the show will be up at the Depot through Saturday February 19.

The Brownwood Art Association will be hosting their annual Photography Contest during the Brownwood Reunion.   The Photo Contest will be on display during the following times:

• Friday Sept. 17th 5pm – 7pm
• Sat Sept. 18 12pm – 5pm
• Sun Sept. 19 1pm – 4pm

A reception for the entrants will be held on Friday, Sept. 17th from 5-pm to 7pm.

Visitors viewing the photographs are invited to cast a vote for their favorite image in the People’s Choice selection.  The overall winner of these ballots will receive the People’s Choice Ribbon on Sunday.

The contest is open to photographers age 8-80.  Prizes awarded in Student, Adult, and Professional categories.  Entries are $5.00 each and must be framed.  All subject matter in good taste is accepted.

For those interested in entering the photography contest, entry forms are available online at www.brownwoodtx.com and www.brownwoodart.com.

Photographs will be accepted at 215 Fisk in downtown Brownwood on:

• Saturday Sept. 11:  11am – 1pm
• Monday Sept. 13:  11am – 1pm
• Tuesday Sept. 14:  11am – 1pm & 6pm – 8pm
• Wednesday Sept. 15:   11am- 1pm

So the Stars of Texas Juried Art Show came to an end this weekend. I enter the show every year and this year won Honorable Mention for “The Diggers”. If you are an artist or photographer and you didn’t enter the show make plans to do so next year, the entry fee is low and the show just gets better every year. For anyone who didn’t get by to see the show I am post my winning image and artist statement. Feel free to comment about what you think – I love to hear everyone’s stories.

The inspiration for this piece comes from a very unlikely place – the public library in Woodward Oklahoma. When I was younger my mother used to take us to the library to pick out books to read. My favorite were a series of books about a little mouse. The best part about the little mouse books was that they contained no words – only pictures of the mouse involved in different situations and you got to tell your own story about the mouse.

20 years later I was stuck on a current project. In much of my art I try to get the viewer to interact with the piece, which is admittedly much easier with sculpture than with photography. That is where I was stuck – how to engage a viewer with a 2 dimensional artwork and my mind turned back to the little mouse books.

My memory of the little mouse books gave birth to a series of works that depict a climactic or decisive moment in a story – although what that story is is entirely up to the viewer. “The Diggers” is one of my favorite images in that series because it prompts so many questions – “Are they burying something or digging it up?” “Who are they?” “Why are they doing this?” “Who or what are they looking at?” “What happened leading up to this moment and what happens afterward?”

But the most important question is – what is your story?