Ashtabula was Ashtabulous

A catalog essay.

Amy Casey, Everything is Fine!!, acrylic on paper, 22 x 30 inches, winner of the First Place for Realism in the 2023 Paul and Norma Tikkanen Painting Prize Exhibition, courtesy of the artist (source)

I know I’m not famous because I’m still tickled when my name appears in the news. Back in October I made the Ohio Tribune Chronicle and the Ashtabula Star Beacon (and through the latter, Yahoo!) for my service as juror in conjunction with the 2023 Paul and Norma Tikkanen Painting Prize Exhibition at the Ashtabula Arts Center.

A couple of days ago I received the catalog for the exhibition, to which I contributed a short essay.

Bonnard once noted that a painter with charm can acquire power, but not the converse. Speaking for myself, I look for combinations of verve and technique, emphasizing the former to the point that I’m prepared to endorse some pretty shaky technical displays that evince liveliness and good instincts. On the contrary, figuration that relies too heavily on the camera tends to put me off, though we recognized a work made squarely in the genre of photorealism, which is a somewhat different thing. The top prize for realism went to an artist using realist conventions to build a strange world thick with buildings and fungi, meticulously rendered against a sky of blank paper. The commensurate abstraction prize went to a picture that ably distinguished itself from the venerable but well-traveled path of American non-objective painting. For the six honorable mentions, each of the two jurors picked three favorites without consulting one another, so that the resulting award slate would reflect plurality as well as consensus.

One hopes that a juror will bring to the task of selecting works of art for an exhibition something like genuine taste. It’s inevitable that mere preferences will tag along. I believe that we’ve honored a worthy selection. But the show could have been larger, and just as good, given the wealth of material we had to choose from. More than once we had to select between two muscular submissions by the same artist. The talent in the area is striking. It may sound paradoxical to say so, but while the artists in the show have a right to feel proud of their inclusion, those not included need feel no embarrassment at the fact. Keep working, and continue to treasure the Ashtabula Arts Center, which is an unusually formidable regional institution and deserves your fondness.

Many thanks to the Center for the honor and opportunity.

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