JUDGE

I was honored to be asked as one of the judges of the Ocean City Arts Center Boardwalk Art Show last weekend. It is a very nice show, all fine art, no craft, and many an excellent artist has gotten their start there. Coincidentally, just around this time I was in touch with Mary Whyte, a very well-known painter of national repute, and she told me that long ago this had been her very first plein-air show and that she had learned a lot from doing it (plus it had rained and ruined her mats!)

This was my first time as a judge, and I found it fascinating to be on the other side of the gavel as it were. Gave me a lot of insight into how almost arbitrarily such decisions are made! Not that we weren't all totally, even overly, scrupulous and careful. But when you have a group of very different people having to agree, compromise (even capitulation) is the name of the game. All in all, a fascinating experience. It was so broiling hot, with an intermittent hot gusting wind, that I wished we could have awarded every booth holder a Purple Heart ribbon for valiant effort.