To my considerable surprise last night my hand-colored photo Blue Diamond 2018.36 got the second place award in the Umpqua Valley Arts Center’s Artworks Northwest exhibit in Roseburg.
Juror Danielle Knapp told the crowd at the reception that 912 works were entered, of which she selected 56.
Even better: The award came with a check for $500.
I shot the photo last year on a cool, rainy day chasing around the southern Oregon Cascade forests with Noah and a bird guy named Lee French, who was guiding us to various Great Gray Owls he knew about in the vicinity. At one stop I was feeling particularly cold and miserable but looked up to see this snag, which was marked by a blue diamond for cross country skiers. I took the picture without thinking too much about it. Then got home and printed it large, and forgot about it for a while, and then one day added some paint — and decided I liked it quite a lot.
Now I like it even more.
