Wednesday, July 19, 2006

Winners for the myartspace "South of France" Competition

The first annual myartspace “South of France” competition concluded on July 14th, 2006. Winners of the competition were selected by two methods – popular vote and jury vote. Two top-winners were selected from each.

The jurors have selected the following winners:

Best in Competition:
Ilona Niemi from Piikkio, Finland
Micke Tong from San Francisco, California Runners Up,

joint second place:
Larz Eldbage from Sigtuna, Sweden
Rachel Papo
Michael Berkowitz from Brooklyn, New York

Runners Up, joint third place:
Yolanda Rosa from Mexico
Jason Michael Aumann from San Francisco, CA
Marine Penvern from Paris, France
Suzette Troche from Santa Clarita, California

Short listed:
Craig Gordon
Jennifer Chu from Chicago, Illinois

Julianne Ingles from Chicago, Illinois
Zachar Vaks from Tashkent, Uzbekistan
Joris Van Daele from London, United Kingdom
Tadashi Terada from Japan

The winners of the popularity vote were as follows:

Best in Competition:
Sue Cook, Painting, from Oxfordshire, United Kingdom
Scott Talley, Photography from Lockhart, Texas

Runner Up, second place:
Gabriela Calleja, Artist, from Chile

Runner Up, joint third place:
Hans Ohman, Artist
Corrigan Clay, Photographer, from Coos Bay, Oregon

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Some comments back from myartspace members....

Hi Catherine

Wow, that must have been a challenge to sort out. Congrats to you and your colleagues on how you dealt with it – very professionally! =) I´ll make sure to stay in touch with you guys, and will be happy to keep updating my portfolio on your new site.
Greetings from U.S.A.
Astrid

Hi,
I guess its a matter of opinion...
but I really don't see what was the big deal with either of the winners...
I know there was fraud, I watched it happen....but, c'mon....
well, I'm not a sore loser just think this is pretty ridiculous....
thanks for having a great site anyway...
respectfully,
Rob

Catherine:
I want to thank you for the opportunity to exhibit my work and share my
work with the world. Thank you for your hard work and all that you do for
artists. I am sad that I did not win but I know that the people have spoken and I
happy with that. Keep up the good work, It will be worthwhile.
Love and Light,
Mia

Dear Catherine,

What a surprise! Even though I did look at your work earlier, I never made the connection- I am so visually oriented- your photo with you and your dog and your blue painting are what are striking to me. The contest? well that was a wild dream. Your honesty, sincereness and goals for such a site is the prize for me. And, most important, your love and honor for your Mother. I see the influences and, I see how prolific your Mother was. She sets an excellent example of the responsibilities of an artist; a steady work-pace, an exploratory vision and above all, honest talent.
Thank you for giving me this opportunity to exhibit my work. I look forward
of the development of myartspace!
Most sincerely,
Ann

Dear Catherine,
Wanted to thank-you for this opportunity and to commend you on creating a beautiful website space and in choosing an artist after finding fraudulent voting...I am sure it wasn't an easy process. I look forward to seeing what comes in the near future for the new site.
Best Wishes,
Diane

Dear Ms. Skiba,
Just wanted to write real quick to thank you for deciding to choose a
jury to elect two additional winners for the myartspace competition. I,
along with many others I'm sure, was disappointed to see that the
previous election process pretty much allotted the winners to be those
who could manipulate the internet best to create enough false e-mail
accounts to rack up votes. I know that your intentions were to create a
community where fellow artists could appreciate and genuinely respect
each others work, but it seems to really have not worked out as
planned.

The first system proved to be difficult for me, because I just couldn't
arrogantly request others to appreciate my work for the sole reason of
my own personal benefit. I felt like it was not my place to email a
massive amount of people to beg for their votes. I hope that my work
can speak for itself. I believe that it is good, but I cannot just
force other people to believe so. They must choose for themselves. I am
pleased that you will have an impartial jury that will not be swayed by
personal selfish interests, so therefore a more deserving winner can be
chosen. This jury has a difficult task at their hands, but I'm sure
their decision will be an appropriate one. I believe that myartspace is
a great outlet for members of the art world, and I thank you for giving
artists like me a chance to put my work out there. I plan to be a
member for quite some time, and I look forward to what myartspace will
present in the future.
thanks again,
Christina

Carie Thompson said...

I was thinking about joining this site, but honestly. I lookedat the winners work, and thought that the runners up work was much more stronger than the others.. perhaps that is the premise. to have someone that isn't good really, to study and get better.. not sure.
This by no means is meant to be derogitory towards any of the artists.. keep up the work~! but I am merely stating that the choices of the winners... hmmm.. don't get it.