Fish Academy received second place in the 57th Tri-Group Show this year. Many thanks to juror, Dr. Benjamin Ogrodnik, Assistant Professor of Art at Del Mar Collage.

Dr. Ogrodnik really took a great deal of care in jurying this exhibit. His Juror’s Statement spans two pages of the program and goes into so much more detail than the usual “such a great wealth of art and artists in our community, so difficult to pick, etc. etc.”

I was awestruck by his description of my piece and wanted to share his words with you:

“The second-place piece, Fish Academy, contrasts sharply with the contemplative mood of Midnight Sonata. The small-sized encaustic painting appears as a translucent surface composed of cloudy, discolored forms. But, once examined up close, bits of text, numbers, and schools of fish become visible through the soupy opacity of the picture. Unlike the peaceful, almost static seascapes one often finds in South Texas art galleries, Fish Academy explodes with the fury of a typhoon. The flat text combines with the physical materials in this chaotic abstraction, inviting us to linger over the texture and depths of its drippy surfaces. What it shares with Midnight Sonata is a sense of time and duration, albeit on the level of materiality.”

Note: the first-place piece, Midnight Sonata, that he refers to is a beautifully crafted, and realistic, oil painting of a woman sitting on the edge of a luxurious sofa.

I am particularly struck by this sentence: “Unlike the peaceful, almost static seascapes one often finds in South Texas art galleries, Fish Academy explodes with the fury of a typhoon.”

My artwork, especially the abstracts, really is at odds with most of the birds, fishes, and watercolor paintings of the harbors and sunsets that populate most of the galleries in this area. 

Encaustic collage on wood panel 

16”H x 12”W

Currently available at Moon Over Water Gallery.