Mollie January 14th, 2007 Show

The evening started out a little slow because we had freezing rain, but that didn’t stop the night from being a success. I can’t say enough about how much I enjoyed the fencing demonstration led by Bob McPherson! As anyone who knows me can attest, I absolutely love all things Gothic and Renaissance; but even those not so enthralled as me would have thoroughly enjoyed themselves. At first he explained a bit about the history of swords and sword fighting then moved on to the demonstration. At one point he asked the audience if they would rather hear more history or more fighting; and to McPherson’s surprise we asked for more history… then more fighting. My husband’s co-worker and his family showed up to support me (but mostly to see the fencing) and from the looks on the kid’s faces I think they enjoyed themselves too.

The part you all are wondering… how did the evening turn out for my artwork? Did I win any prizes or get any recognition? The answer is yes; but first I want to mention that there was some really great work on display. I alluded in a previous post that there were not as many submissions as we would’ve liked, but I still had stiff competition; and the three featured artists were incredible! Before the awards I got to meet the gallery manager; she came over to ask me if I was having a good time and we started talking. She explained how they came up with the theme of the show and that she is a huge fan of Gothic Art. I did a little networking… ok, so I really just tried to act normal and not embarrass myself… but it’s a start.

There were three categories of art submissions; and each category had first, second, and third place; then a best of show that includes all of the work for the whole show. All of the pieces I submitted were under the same category – Painting/Drawing. “Knight” won Third place, “Cityscape” (3-D drawing) won Second place, and Holy Crap! “Chivalry” won best of show! That means that all three of my pieces won an award!!!! There was a little mix-up in the labeling of “Knight” and “Chivalry” so it took a little to sort out which of them won the big prize, but in the end I couldn’t be happier that all my work on “Chivalry” paid off.   I was a little embarrassed with all the attention, so it helped that the fencing demonstration was right after the awards, by then it was getting late and I could excuse myself before my face went up in flames.