‘SCAPES: Annual Landscape Exhibit

Stunning View of the Organ Mountains (left)

The Getty Villa Pond (right)

While visiting the Torpedo Factory Art Center a few weeks ago, I stopped by The Art League and picked up a few prospectus for upcoming exhibits. After reading the ‘SCAPES: Annual Landscape Exhibit” qualifications, I decided to enter two of my masterpieces (“Stunning View of the Organ Mountains” & “The Getty Villa Pond”). The Stunning View of the Organ Mountains was inspired by a photo taken by The White House when President Obama preserved the Organ Mountains as a Desert Peak National Monument. In Stunning View of the Organ Mountains (2015), the foreground consists of three large boulders and part of a wheelbarrow with greenery in the middle ground and the Organ Mountains in the background. While visiting the The Getty Villa in the Pacific Palisades of Los Angeles, California, I took a few images of ponds located within The Getty Villa. In The Getty Villa Pond (2015), the foreground consists of a closeup of the pond with a lonely water lily surrounded by lily pads and rocks.

For this exhibit, you had to either be a member or an instructor at The Art League and to deliver the pieces between specified date & time, ready to be hanged with proper wiring.

On Tuesday morning, I woke up at 7:30 am to get ready for an hour plus commute via WMATA, which required transferring rail lines. I arrived at the King Street metro station at around 10:15 am. Since the weather looked nice, I decided to walk to the Torpedo Factory Art Center. The walk took longer than expected (about an hour) – probably because it was hot, I was thirsty, and I had to lug my large art portfolio carrying two 18″ x 24″ paintings.

When I got to The Art League, they handed me two slips to fill out and eventually attach to the upper left hand corner of each painting. After filling out the slips, the ladies at the counter told me they would not accept paintings with a metal hook and that I had to go to The Art League store on the second floor to buy a kit. When I got upstairs, the gentleman running the store said they didn’t have a kit but helped me attach the screws and wire to each of the paintings. That process took about 30-40 minutes because he had to assist other customers. By the time I got downstairs, it was 15 minutes before the receiving period ended. Since I joined The Art League membership a few weeks ago, I had forgot which program I joined. When I went to the registration table, the lady seemed friendly to help in the beginning but when she realized I should have gone to the front desk she was furious and implied that I have wasted her time. Since the paintings had to be for sale, she told me to up the price values of my paintings to be at least $275 since if my entries got in, The Art League would take 40% of proceeds. After getting and placing information label to stick on the backs of the paintings and number label to stick on the sides of the paintings, they gave me a receipt stating how I would find out whether I got into the exhibit or not (via phone, email, or online). As I walked into the drop-off zone, I noticed that the rooms were categorized by type of medium: photography, watercolor, sculpture, and painting. As soon I went into the painting section, I immediately knew that I was up against the very best.

After dropping my paintings off, I decided to stick around Old Town Alexandria for the next 5.5 hours since they notify those accepted at 5:30 pm and those individuals who were rejected had to pick up their paintings (either the same day between 5:30-7:30 pm or the next day) since they had limited storage space. When 5:30 pm rolled around, I was eager to return to The Art League but it didn’t look like they were quite ready so I waited until others entered. They handed me a list to review and I found out that neither of my paintings were accepted but that one of them was in the ‘maybe’ pile. I asked someone how many entries they typically accept and she said 20% (in this case, 100 out of 500 submitted pieces). There were a bunch of lovely paintings in the rejected pile. This gives me the idea of what to expect and the incentive to try harder for future exhibits.