Tending the Children  was selected for the gallery exhibition in Middlebury, Vermont

Juror’s Statement:  Wow! What a thrill and an honor to review such compelling and thought-provoking imagery with extraordinary levels of ingenuity. Thanks to all the artists who shared their work with me. The theme Myths, Legends, and Dreams lends itself to a rich and multi-interpretational platform for making art—art that can be playful and haunting, abstract and representational as well as literal and imagined. You will see all approaches considered in the works selected for this exhibition. These images stand as a testament to the ever-broadening definition of the medium of photography, while also offering refreshing takes on classic tales, dreamscapes, and difficult-to-explain phenomena.

I believe there is an element of magic that unites all this work, along with the unusual capacity to connect with the viewer in deeply profound ways. I was especially fascinated by images that emerged from developed bodies of work, in which the artist is pursuing a cohesive photographic vision. It’s always exciting to discover an artist who understands how to harmonize his/her creative voice, establishing a signature style that can be easily identified yet does not appear formulaic, familiar, or redundant. Also, I encountered a lot of work that surprised me with its clever transcendental quality—taking me somewhere else, a place of the artist’s invention. Much of the beauty of a photograph is in its inherent nature to communicate a “truth.” However, many of the images in this show challenged my sense of what’s real by fabricating a convincing “new reality.”  Amy Holmes-George

Tending the Children

Archival Pigment Print