Bird Tales Opening Reception

The new show at the Boatworks is for the birds, but that's no insult.  The exhibition is called Bird Tales, and the theme is indeed all about birds.  Artists were invited to submit works about birds and related things, and did they ever.  This show has over 60 pieces in a variety of mediums, filling both the front and back galleries.

This show was open to all mediums.  Various forms of painting dominated, but there are examples of sculpture (as in the above piece by Lisa Bagwell), photography, drawing, fibers, and printmaking.  The exhibition's director is Suzanne Crosby, who headed up the last bird themed show a few years ago, and the juror is Vicki Siegel, who is based in Florida.  As part of the application process, all participants were asked to provide a short statement, including a mention of what the main inspiration was for the piece- a particular artist, movement, etc, and some of this was included in the wall labels that accompany each piece.

This being a summer weekend in Belmar, the town was filling up, and as the exhibition reception was beginning, parking spaces were few.  Many of the people walking through the door mentioned the difficulty or the distance they had walked from their parking spaces to the Boatworks.  Yet people started to arrive before the official beginning and kept coming, and soon the building was quite full of visitors.

As a general rule, the more artists in an exhibition, the higher the attendance at the reception, so those more than 60 works brought in quite a crowd.  People were everywhere in the building, but as always the crowds started gathering in the back room, where the bar, refreshments, and some tables were located.

Near the halfway point, exhibition chair Suzanne Crosby introduced herself and exhibition juror Vicki Siegel, who had made the journey up from Florida for the occasion.  They in turn made the announcement of prize winning works and artists:

Honorable Mentions:

Deco Woman

Jennifer Santa Maria

Kestrel

Jerry Deutsch

Big Bird 2

Lisa Bagwell

Third Prize

Which came first, the egg or the emu

Sheila Kramer

Second Prize

Through the Restless Seas

Cheryl Greisbach

First Prize

Moineaux Curieux

Jill Alexander

Images of the prize winning pieces are provided by the artists as part of their entries.  Meanwhile, the award winners are all labeled there in the gallery, which is the best way to see the art anyway.

The Bird Tales exhibition remains on display during regular gallery hours and by appointment through July 13, 2019.  Admission in free.

Individual art images provided by the artists