"Grandmother Wins Arts Show" & more..

I think my favorite headline ever for a report on an art fair:  Grandmother Wins Arts Show. Hooray for grandmothers out there creating art and winning the awards, in this case Carol Elder Napoli who won this $5000 award for the second year in a row. You'll like this story.

Mount Dora has nearly 300 exhibitors and usually you can find a bunch of our members among the exhibitors as well as the prizewinners. Here are this year's winners:

Best of Show    $5000  Carol Napoli **  
Judges 2-D Choice  $1500  William Kwamena-Poh     
Judges 3-D Choice   $1500  David Figueroa     
Wendy Alderman Award $250   Tonya Hedgeman **     
Our Community Award $1000 Robert Wince  

Carol Napoli - the winning grandmother

   
Best of Categories  $750
Painting     Charles Gatewood **   
Watercolor    Gary Curtis    
Clay    Don McWhorter  
Mixed Media   Leslie Peebles **  
Glass and Metal   Chris McCarthy 
Jewelry     Patricia Karnes **      
Photography    Clifton Henry     
Sculpture   Charles Hazelaar     
Fine Craft  Jay McDougall ** 

Awards of Excellence   $250

1. Amos Amit - fiber **
2. Bill and John Slade - glass **
3. Craig McMillan  
4. Laurie Coppedge - photography
5. Lori Jenkins    
6. Aaron Hequembourg - mixed media
7. Deborah Barnes    
8. Daniel Christie  
9. Ning Ling     
10. Fred Tate - jewelry
11. M.H. Meyers  
12. Jeff Eckert   

**member of ArtFairInsiders.com

Judges Statement
Overall we were pleased with the quality and diversity of the work presented.  It was a pleasure to see new artists participating as well as the new Emerging Artists. Our Best of show selection derived from a very high quality of selected entries.  It was not an easy decision. For the Best of Show we sought a work which seemed to marry the medium, the technique and the content with a unique voice.

Here are a couple of articles from the Orlando Sentinel: Mount Dora Festival had Judges on the Run. I'll bet -- how do you get through 300 booths in a day? Learn how they did it, plus a nice bunch of photos if you are wanting more info on the show.

I know a bunch of you were at the show. What do you think of these winners? How fast were the judges?