Open Letter to Artists | No Fee Art Submissions

Dear Artists,
 

We are in the process of making several major changes and I am anxious to tell you about them.

First, artists who submit work in response to our calls will no longer have to pay fees. Everything else about our exhibitions will stay the same. We will select thirty artists whose work will be shown online and in our art and literary journal, Still Point Arts Quarterly, and we will designate 5 artists as award winners in 5 categories.

Call for Artists

Second, we have decided to transition to a digital interactive journal; eventually, we will stop producing our journal in print. This decision was mainly driven by difficulties we've had with the U.S. Postal Service regarding delivery. We've made several changes over the years to try to improve our delivery rates, but we still experience a number of costly delivery problems with every mailing. For a small business, these expenses can be very troubling. Some of you have experienced this problem with us. So, we've decided to focus our efforts in the future on our digital piece, and we plan to make it an interactive digital publication with links and pop-ups. We're excited about the next steps in the evolution of our very fine art and literary journal. Also, we will continue to honor paid subscriptions to print editions until they expire.
Still Point Arts Quarterly

Third, subscriptions and single copies of our digital publication will be free. With our expenses drastically lowered by not paying printing and mailing costs, we feel we can offer our journal to readers at no cost. Ultimately, our goal is to dramatically widen our reach into the art and literary community. 

Sign up for your free digital subscription to Still Point Arts Quarterly, which starts with the fall 2017 issue.

I know there is a feeling on the part of many artists that the practice of paying money to have one's work considered for an exhibition is questionable, at best. While it is a very common practice, it has both pros and cons, and I have often given this consideration. But the business of producing a print journal has required us to find ways to support the ever-increasing costs of printing and postage. Since our artists are featured in the journal, I felt charging fees was justified. But by now dropping our printing and mailing expenses, it only makes sense to not charge fees for submitting artwork for consideration. 

I hope you will continue to support and delight us with your art submissions. Our commitment to quality content and presentation is unchanged. Please share this message with your friends and colleagues.

Thank you for all you do to make our work so enjoyable.

Hope to hear from you soon.

Christine Cote
Founder and Proud Member

The Big Picture

I'm captivated by small things in the natural world—leaves, seedlings, flower buds, snowflakes, tiny baby birds pointing their wide open mouths toward the sky. I watch them, examine them, touch them, collect them, and photograph them. But I'm also mesmerized by the big picture, the part of the natural world that I can't get my arms around—the landscape. Landscapes may well be my favorite subjects for art.

So I decided to show landscapes (see our current exhibition), but with a little bit of a twist—landscapes by day and landscapes by night. The exhibition is wonderful—many amazing images of the world by day and by night. A few need special mention, and I'll talk about some of these special images over the coming weeks. (The exhibition closes April 30, 2014.)

The nighttime landscapes of photographer Bob Avakian are nothing short of stunning. They illuminate the unique color palette, the rich shadows, and the glowing warmth of the night. These landscapes do indeed show a part of the natural world that is big—too big to get your arms around, but not too big to sink into and absorb into your pores. Look at these images and be mesmerized.

Winter Blues

Living in Maine, I truly have the opportunity to enjoy the seasons, and in Maine, we have more than just the traditional four seasons. We have spring, summer, fall, and winter, but we also have mud, bug, fishing, tourist, lobster, harvest, hunting, shrimp, shoveling, and sledding. They each have their unique characteristics and customs and . . . colors. Yes, colors. 

I associate each of the seasons with certain colors. Staying with the traditional seasons, I associate fall with orange and rust, gold and deep red. I connect spring with green, the kind of green seen in new leaves and fresh grass. Summer, for me, is bright, hot, blazing red . . . an uncomfortably hot red. And winter, my favorite season, is blue.

There is a kind of blue we see in winter when everything is covered in mounds of pure white snow, the sky is clear, and the sun has just set. Dusk settles in, and a beautiful blue cast fills the atmosphere  . . . spreading out like a blue fog. I know blue is considered a cool color, but, for me, blue has a way of adding warmth to the cold of winter. 

Still Point Art Gallery's current show is Winter Splendor. Here are a few of my favorite images from the show that feature the beautiful color of blue. (Be sure to see the entire show before it closes on January 31, 2014.)

The High Peaks, Eleanor Goldstein

Morning Frost, Leslie Parke

Northern Lights, Bob Craig

Winter Cold, Marie Dancy-Brennan

Snow and Ice Floes on the River, Michael Welch

The River Rests in Winter, Margruite Krahn

Sea Smoke and Ice, Dave Clough

It Stopped Me in My Tracks

Images are images, and art is art. All visual art is an image, but not all images are art. I love images . . . color, line, shape, texture. But art . . . well . . . art stops me in my tracks. 

Quiet Invitation II. Beth Swanson.

This painting, by Beth Swanson, is part of Still Point Art Gallery's current exhibition: Interiors. I really love this image. I love the folds in the tablecloth, the curves of the backs of the chairs, the clean lines of the windows, the little pots on the sills, and the lovely, curvaceous objects on the table. The composition is perfect. Everything is balanced—one window balances the other, the chairs are positioned to give the image stability and firmness, and the objects are carefully placed to achieve an effect of evenness and equilibrium. The eyes of the viewer are drawn to the corner of the room, off-center, avoiding a feeling of symmetry and creating a bit of tension that is very enjoyable. The curves of the chairs are a perfect counterpoint to the straightness and angularity of the windows. The color—beautiful, soft greens—make the piece feel cool and peaceful. Everything about this piece is perfection. It is art. It stopped me in my tracks. 

Only one problem. It doesn't exist. I've never seen a room like this. I've never seen color and light like this. I've never been in a room as quiet and ethereal as this one seems to be. But, again, this is art. This image came from the depths of Swanson's imagination and heart, and it captivates my own imagination and heart. I could stare at this painting for hours and days. Yet, I don't see this painting as much as I feel this painting. I feel it with all my senses. It is art.