I remember making big plans at the end of 2019 - one of those plans being to enter EVEN MORE shows and competitions in 2020 than I had in 2019.

Entering your work in competitions, and seeing it on display with others work, helps one improve in 2 ways:

1. It makes you look at your work in a more critical fashion - thus “seeing” it in a different way - successes, flaws, and all.

2. Seeing your work on the wall among other artists gives one the feeling of “success”. This is an important aspect in the fact that we often need small successes in order to continue to create and move forward with our art.

Of course, 2020 had other plans in store for us; I watched as show after show were cancelled this year. To be fair, the cancelling of photography shows and competitions is really trivial in comparison to the number of lives, and jobs, lost.

Thankfully, this Fall the Middletown Arts Center committed to having its Annual Photography and Digital Arts Competition. This show usually takes place in the Spring - so having it resurrected for this Fall was a special treat. The show runs through this Thursday, November 5th - if you are local to the Southwest Ohio area I highly suggest that you stop in and see the show. Nearly all works are for sale, with the majority of the proceeds going to the artist with a small portion going to MAC to help with the expenses of putting on the show.

If you can’t make it, MAC tried something new during this pandemic year by doing a “virtual tour”.

Out of the 100 or so fine pieces on display, I have 9 works in the gallery. I’m also please to announce that two of them won their respective categories.

Remember that art still has its place in the world during this pandemic - if for nothing else to help us have some sort of normalcy. Please, wherever possible, safely support those artists and organizations that continue to bring art to us during these difficult times.

Thanks for reading and stay safe!

Jeremy