Who's gonna win the Trawick?

Here are the Trawick Prize Short Listed artists...

Lauren Adams - Baltimore, MD

Selin Balci - Annapolis, MD

Travis Childers - Fairfax, VA

Adam Hager - Washington, D.C.

Mariah Anne Johnson - Washington, D.C.

Gary Kachadourian - Baltimore, MD

Kate Kretz - Colesville, MD

This year is a tough call, made tougher by the fact that the Trawick has progressively become more competitive each year; congrats to all the artists!

My favorite artist in this lot, and by far the one with the most exposure, experience and artistic DNA is Kate Kretz (remember when one of her paintings achieved worldwide attention a few years ago?).

Kretz should win this prize, and if she was picked by whoever was the "big mouth" (BM) from among the three jurors, then she will win. If I was one of this jurors, because I am a big mouth myself, then Kretz would definitely win.

But the fact that there are a couple (or three actually) of artists with very similar artistic interests in this lot, it seems to indicate to me that the BM was the "chooser" of those two and her own artistic agenda pushes more that way - if I'm correct, then Kretz was backed by the only artist in the panel.... who possibly also backed Mariah Anne Johnson.

UMD graduate Selin Balci's fascinating work gives me the impression of making her a  "juror's artist" (check out her CV here and see how many high profile juried shows have selected her amazing work recently) and I'm gonna predict that she wins this prize.

The show is at Gallery B (the former Fraser Gallery space in Bethesda) and I am told that the prize announcement will be September 16 - the show runs through Sept. 28.