The semi-annual Cottonwood Art Festival is currently accepting applications for the Spring 2017 show being held May 6-7 in Richardson, Texas. There is a non-refundable jury fee of $30 and the deadline to submit is by midnight on January 13, 2017. The jury will review all applicants January 17-20 to fill an estimated 250 booth spaces.
Today is the first Friday of October and also celebrated as World Smile Day since 1999. The history of the smiley face dates back decades but the iconic yellow image was created by an American commercial artist Harvey Ross Ball. Harvey started off as an apprentice for a local sign painter before deciding to study fine arts at Worcester Art Museum School.
First come first serve and lottery systems are known methods for assigning booths, but Cottonwood Art Festival is a juried show with good reason. What is a juried show and how is it different from other art festivals? Juried competitions, have since the dawn of digital, afforded artists around the world opportunities to compete for inclusion in prestigious shows such as Cottonwood Art Festival.
Cottonwood Art Festival is a semi-annual juried show, and among the 240 artists selected to participate only one is chosen as the featured artist. “Pretty Bird” by artist Kristin DeSantis was recently announced as the crested crow to represent the Spring show being held May 7-8 at Cottonwood Park. Elongated talons and eyelashes intentionally convey the personality of “Pretty Bird” and DeSantis explains, “she is a sexy, slightly demure princess.”