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Judge's Criteria for Selecting Works for the 2014 Gateway to Imagination Juried Art Competition Congratulations to all the artists! I am impressed with the number, variety and quality of works submitted to the “2014 Gateway to Imagination Juried Art Competition” and am pleased to have been asked to judge these works. The first thing I look for in a work of art is impact. Does it catch the eye and does it hold it? This can be achieved with bright color, contrast or subject matter. Does the piece read well from a distance as well as close up? These are mostly subjective judgments. The next thing I look for is professionalism. Does the artist use their medium well? Do they understand composition and proportion? Do they understand color, color contrast and harmony? With representational work, is the drawing done well and correct? Do they understand value, can they represent light and shadow and describe form? Does the artist work to a high degree of craftsmanship? These are objective judgments. The entries represented a wide variety of styles and mediums. I tried to reflect this in the variety of works chosen for the exhibition. My intent was to create a show both stimulating and enjoyable as possible for the viewer. Artists should always use the best photography available for presenting entries for a competition. Paintings should always be “squared” in the photograph and cropped using computer software if necessary. Backgrounds behind 2 dimensional and 3 dimensional works are a distraction. The color and value should be correct to accurately describe the work. I suspect poor photography kept me from accurately judging a few works which kept them out of the show. A juror cannot guess what is hidden by a poor photograph. Good luck to all of you in your art careers. If your work was not chosen for this exhibition, please do not be discouraged. Keep working, even better, work harder than before. Study, practice and keep an open mind and eyes. Your time will come.