WELCOME EVERYONE!!!
I hope you all are very well. So after some delay and a lot of review I present to you the winners and honorable mentions of our first Visionary Art Contest. I have got to say this contest was a significant success as we received a total of 50 entries!!
Visionary Art is about stretching, bending and breaking through boundaries. Visionary Art is about the discovery and distribution of self empowerment. Visionary Art is the result of venturing into the mind to bring back the most exploratory, esoteric and innovative ideas to be distributed among our collective, default reality in order to elevate and evolve those who dare to look. Some of our contestants are so high level that they boggle the mind and it was a genuine pleasure to see so many established And young artists push themselves in some fascinating ways. This, and this alone, is the engine behind Visionary Art.
This contest was designed to not only give great artists an opportunity to show off their ability to grapple with extraordinary concepts but to also introduce young artists to those already extant cartographers of hyperdimensional space.
Note- If you are not acknowledged in this post it does not necessarily mean that you did not produce great work or that I don't like or appreciate your invested time. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask.
PREPARE FOR JUDGEMENT :)
My template for judging was as follows-
Is the art Visionary? - Meaning, does the art venture outside of linear thought to extract sublime, esoteric concepts from the beyond to expand or elevate the contest and the general viewer's perception of reality as a whole?
How intense is the artist's Ability to perform within a certain criteria?
How refined is the artist's Technique?
How much Effort did the artist invest in the art that they submitted?
Is the art Believable? Meaning, does the art represent something that could potentially be experienced or seen under the right circumstances?
Is the art Professional? Could it be sold to another Visionary Artist?
Did the artist follow the Contest Guidelines? (process shots, at least some type of insight into its creation, submitting only one work, not reproducing other artist's work etc.)
You were disqualified from consideration if you submitted more than one work or if you took someone else's art and put a photoshop filter over it.
Though I wish I could dole out huge amounts of money to everyone, I ultimately had to choose based on the guidelines. Thank you to everyone who participated. And especially to all of our young, blooming artists who took a crack at playing with the big boys. Keep at it, work everyday, push every piece as far as it will go, study, practice, repeat; you will get there:)
So, without further ado
FIRST PLACE
@thermoplastic- Alien Plant
@thermoplastic dove deep into the recesses of his inner landscape and through his unparalleled technique and intense work ethic brought us our finest Alien Plant. He adhered to the guidelines of the contest with the highest attention and provided a wonderful backstory and context for his Alien Plant.
The unsettling nature of the piece is developed through the exotic, almost erotic organic forms and is expounded by his use of charcoal. The piece feels like a scientific, diagrammatic reproduction of actual extraterrestrial flora. The rendering gives the impression that @thermoplastic sat in front of this organism and produced an accurate schema for the annals of the Smithsonian.
@thermoplastic is rewarded 40 SBD and will receive an upvote on a future post from @sweetsssj. His Alien Plant will be featured on the Slothicorn website as soon as the Gallery is rolled out.
GREAT WORK OTTO!
Please have a look at his Visionary Art Contest entry post here:
https://steemit.com/art/@thermoplastic/the-fernal-alien-plant
SECOND PLACE
@haedre Hyperdimensional Object
Second Place was so close that I almost awarded it to 2 people but I had to stick to my guidelines and make a choice. I stepped back to the Contest Rules and ended up using general post formatting as the deciding factor. @haedre came out on top here due to the detailed overview and the fact that they provided a backstory.
@haedre's dynamic technique and colorful palette stood out. They demonstrated a great intellectual capacity to tackle the most difficult category of the 3 potentials, that being the Hyperdimensional Object. The dynamic movement and intertwining variety of texture and form is impressive and there is a playful quality to the high strangeness of the happening captured in water color upon a block of wood.
@haedre is rewarded 20 SBD. His Hyperdimensional Object will be featured on the Slothicorn website as soon as the Gallery is rolled out.
VERY NICE WORK HAEDRE
https://steemit.com/art/@haedre/hawuawuashka-tryptocarrier-original-painting-progress-and-details
THIRD PLACE
@kaliptus Hyperdimensional Object
@kaliptus is at the cutting edge of the Visionary Art movement. He runs with the best of them. He has shared company with Alex Grey, painted at numerous events and has shown his work alongside the most innovative artists in the game.
His extraordinary effort has earned him Third place. Choosing a traditional painting on canvas, he is being recognized for his complex, attentively rendered, otherworldly eye candyshop. Do spend some time gazing at the great variety of concepts contained in this single work. Not only did he render a Hyperdimensional object, he rendered about 20 variations of it. The one key, missing aspect that would have earned him 2nd or perhaps even first place was a description of his intention behind the work. I would have loved to have read his thoughts concerning his choices behind his composition. Other than that, @kaliptus ran circles around the competition.
@kaliptus is rewarded 10 SBD. His Hyperdimensional Objects will be featured on the Slothicorn website as soon as the Gallery is rolled out.
FANTASTIC WORK KALIPTUS
https://steemit.com/art/@kaliptus/sky-temple-is-finally-here
Honorable Mentions
The following entries meet most of the guidelines above and were outstanding in one way or another but did not quite cut the top 3. Some of them went above and beyond with their post formatting, others are just simply beautiful to look at, and others still were simply great attempts.
Each of the 5 contestants below will receive 1 SBD and be featured on the Slothicorn Website once the Gallery is up and running.
Again, I wish I could reward everyone with a whole boatload of Steem Dollar's but I need to stick to the structure here.
@sibr.hus - Alien Plant
This might be my personal favorite of the competition. Ultimately, I wanted to see more effort invested in the entry post (a story or some type of insight) but @sibr.hus is clearly an extraordinarily refined artist.
https://steemit.com/visionaryart-contest/@sibr.hus/design-an-alien-plant
@glass.wolf - Alien Plant
A super clean digital piece. Fantastic composition and beautiful color scheme. Great work. Followed:)
https://busy.org/@glass.wolf/my-visionary-art-contest-entry-topic-alien-plant
@krasnec - Alien Plant
I love the variety of form and the effort invested. Nice work.
https://steemit.com/art/@krasnec/giant-oil-painting
@wanaf - Hyperdimensional Object
Though this piece is not nearly as technically involved or time consuming as its traditional competition, the emotional quality is high. @wanaf has captured something very near to a Visionary State with this piece. The lonely, bleak color scheme and strange, ritualistic event is evocative and convincing. Visionary Art does not focus as much on how you communicate the Vision or the tools one uses as it does on the artist's ability to communicate the high weirdness of the Visionary states.
https://steemit.com/art/@wanaf/visionary-art-entry-the-unified-man
@yoogyart - Alien Plant
This is a very nice image @yoogyart. Indeed it is convincing and could well be an occurrence on the other side of the veil. I would have liked to see a little more emphasis on the "Alien" or the "Plant" aspects to be considered for the top of the winner's circle. Great write up and video. Thank you for your investment. Great work:)
Other Mentions
Below are a few selected entries that I think have a lot of potential but either fall just outside of the Visionary Art category or could use a couple tweaks to push them up and over the top. They are still nice attempts just a bit outside of what I am looking for here.
@johnfist - Hyperdimensional Object
Though this piece is outside of my personal style tastes and would definitely be considered Surreal before Visionary (were it not centered around the Hypercube) I appreciate the significant time investment and outside-the-box thinking. Keep going @johnfist. Good work.
https://steemit.com/art/@johnfist/euclidean-sunrise-w-process-traditional-ink-and-markers
@pual - Alien Plant
This piece does not exactly qualify as Visionary but I did appreciate the technique, context and size relationships. Definitely a better contender for a concept artwork but great work @pual
https://busy.org/@pual/my-alien-plant
@ferjart - Divine Weapon
I appreciate this piece very much. It is nearly a Visionary work as it pushes the concept of time and space and evokes mystery as to how such a scene could occur. I would have enjoyed seeing a less literal representation of this image, however. Something that played more with the time/space, size/context theme in a less concrete way. I would like to see overlaid patterns demonstrating energy fluctuations and the mathematical underpinnings of creation itself. Nice work @ferjart.
https://steemit.com/visionaryart-contest/@ferjart/visionary-art-contest-creator-of-worlds-my-entry
@juliakponsford - Alien Plant
The charm of this image is striking. I would love to work with you to develop this area of your artistic skill set. You are almost right on target here Julia but there are a couple key aspects that would take this from a charming piece to a breathtaking piece. Let's definitely talk:)
https://steemit.com/art/@juliakponsford/a-healing-alien-plant-for-the-visionary-art-contest
@patschwork - Alien Plant? Hyperdimensional Object?
The effort and process here are tremendous. I just can't figure out which category the image falls under and the overall dark palette causes a bit of strain on the eyes. However, the concept is really neat and the time investment generates a lot of gratitude in me. Thank you for your entry @patschwork.
https://steemit.com/surreal/@patschwork/plantation-of-stars
Okay!!! That wraps it up! Thank you so much for your hard work and don't hate me if I did not mention you. There were pieces that I really loved from a personal stand point that simply did not meet the criteria for Visionary Art. If it helps to console you, I have not won most of the contest that I have entered:)
As we move on to our next contests in the future, please do continue to enter them. The stakes will get higherthe rewards will increase and the categories will change giving you more opportunity to grow, compete and discover fantastic art.
Many Blessings and Keep up the Great Work!!!
Love,
Eloh and Slothi