What seems a lifetime ago, back in January, I mentioned how I had entered some work for a magazine cover competition:
Despite my previously declared indifference – indeed, positive hostility – towards competitions, I confess I got bitten by the competitive bug when my casually-submitted Royal Academy entry in 2017 proved so successful (and, ah, lucrative). As a result, I now keep an eye out for the sort of open entry submissions where my sort of work might stand a chance of getting a showing and even a few sales. Why not?
Last year I spotted the Evolver Prize, a competition to design the front cover of a future issue of Evolver, "the Wessex Arts & Culture Guide", a really useful "what's on in Wessex" publication that I had come across in a Dorset gallery. The winner would get £1000 (no, really) and the top 50 entries shown in an exhibition. Naturally, I submitted an entry and, although I didn't win, I was selected for the exhibition. Result!
Yesterday, in the process of looking for something completely different, I opened the folder where the work I'd done for that competition is stored, and was struck by these pairings. My original purpose in putting two potential cover images onto one sheet of A3+ paper (actually US-style 13" x 19") was practical: I could run them through the printer at the same time, and then cut the sheet in two. But, seeing them with fresh eyes, I realised how well they work together as a single, undivided image. So they may yet get another run-out, together this time, next time I see a tempting open call.
Incidentally, it was the top two I submitted to Evolver, and the one on the right that made it into the Top Fifty exhibition. Obviously, the original reason for the "empty" space in the top quarter of each was to allow space for the magazine's title and cover text, but I rather like it, especially with the subtly patterned texturing of the background.
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