When in Scotland - Part II

As I noted earlier, I was fortunate to have lived in gorgeous Scotland, perhaps the most beautiful country on planet Earth, from 1989-1992 (although I had been visiting it regularly several times a year starting in 1987).

This spectacular nation is an artist's dream come true, especially if you are a landscape artist (which I wasn't), but the sheer beauty of the Scottish landscape turned me into one... and over the years I produced hundreds of Scottish watercolors, pastels and drawings (and some etchings) which celebrated not only the Scottish landscape, but also all the "stuff" around me (I lived in a farmhouse built in 1532), such as sheep, horses, cows, Highland games, fish, and the brilliant Scottish people.

See some of my Scottish sheep pieces here, and enjoy the below art homages to Scotland.

North Sea, near Stonehaven, Angus, Scotland
8x10 inches. Watercolor on paper, c. 1989.
In a private collection in Aberdeen, Scotland

Loch Ness, Scotland
11x14 inches. Watercolor on paper, c. 1991.
In a private collection in Montrose, Scotland

Two Deer, near Little Keithock Farmhouse, Brechin Road, Angus, Scotland
28x40 inches. Watercolor on paper, c. 1991.
In a private collection in Brechin, Scotland

Snowfall, near Braemar, Aberdeenshire, Scotland
16x40 inches. Watercolor on paper, c. 1989.
In a private collection in Braemar, Scotland

Back Road, near Little Keithock Farmhouse, Angus, Scotland
30x40 inches. Watercolor on paper, c. 1992.
In a private collection in Norfolk, Virginia

Seagulls Following the Plow, near Edzell, Angus, Scotland
40x32 inches. Watercolor on paper, c. 1992.
In a private collection in Boise, Idaho

Road to Cairn O'Mount Pass, near Fettercairn, Angus, Scotland
30x40 inches. Watercolor on paper, c. 1990.
In a private collection in Banchory, Scotland

Seagulls following the plow, near Stonehaven, Angus, Scotland
8x10 inches. Watercolor on paper, c. 1989.
In a private collection in Aberdeen, Scotland

Back Road, near Little Keithock Farmhouse, Angus, Scotland
30x40 inches. Watercolor on paper, c. 1992.
In a private collection in San Diego, California

Back road, near Battledykes, Angus, Scotland
8x10 inches. Watercolor on paper, c. 1991.
In a private collection in Aberdeen, Scotland

Northern Lights, Back Road, near Little Keithock Farmhouse, Angus, Scotland
30x40 inches. Watercolor on paper, c. 1992.
In a private collection in Seattle, Washington

Just Before Trinity Fields, Enroute Brechin, Angus, Scotland
6x10 inches. Watercolor on paper, c. 1992.
In a private collection in Dundee, Scotland

Back Road near Smiddie Wood, near Stracathro and Careston Estates, Angus, Scotland
12x40 inches. Watercolor on paper, c. 1992.
In a private collection in Brechin, Scotland

River South Esk, near Brechin, Angus, Scotland
30x40 inches. Watercolor on paper, c. 1991.
In the Collection of the Earl of Southesk

View of the Highlands, near Edzell, Angus, Scotland
10x14 inches. Watercolor on paper, c. 1992.
In a private collection in Fresno, California

Back Road, near Little Keithock Farmhouse, Trinity, Angus, Scotland
18x36 inches. Watercolor on paper, c. 1990.
In a private collection in San Francisco, California

North Sea, near Stonehaven, Angus, Scotland
8x10 inches. Watercolor on paper, c. 1989.
In a private collection in St. Cyrus, Scotland

Road near Kirriemuir, Angus, Scotland, where my daughters would take horse riding lessons
8x10 inches. Watercolor on paper, c. 1992.
In the Collection of the Earl of Southesk

Back road near Laurencekirk, Angus, Scotland
7x10 inches. Ink wash on paper, c. 1990.
In a private collection in Brechin, Scotland

Taking the walk behind the Blue Door, The Burns, near Edzell, Angus, Scotland
8x10 inches. Watercolor on paper, c. 1991
In a private collection in the United States

View from Little Keithock Farmhouse, near Fettercairn, Angus, Scotland
28x40 inches. Watercolor on paper, c. 1992.
In a private collection in Glasgow, Scotland

View of the Highlands, near Maryculter, Angus, Scotland
30x40 inches. Watercolor on paper, c. 1990.
In a private collection in Montrose, Scotland

When in Rome... I mean Scotland...

I was fortunate to have lived in gorgeous Scotland, perhaps the most beautiful country on planet Earth, from 1989-1992 (although I had been visiting it regularly several times a year starting in 1987).

This spectacular nation is an artist's dream come true, especially if you are a landscape artist (which I wasn't), but the sheer beauty of the Scottish landscape turned me into one... and over the years I produced hundreds of Scottish watercolors, pastels and drawings (and some etchings) which celebrated not only the Scottish landscape, but also all the "stuff" around me (I lived in a farmhouse built in 1532), such as sheep, horses, cows, Highland games, fish, and the brilliant Scottish people.

Here are some of the hundreds of pieces that I did on sheep, which were essentially everywhere!

Sheep in a field near Fettercairn, Angus, Scotland

26 x 40 inches, Pastel on paper, c. 1989

In a private collection in Edzell, Scotland

View from Little Keithock Farmhouse, near Fettercairn, Angus, Scotland

30x40 inches. Watercolor on paper, c. 1990.

In a private collection in Montrose, Scotland

Field off the A90, near Fettercairn, Angus, Scotland
12x40 inches. Watercolor on paper, c. 1990.
In a private collection in Brooklyn, New York

Blackface Highlanders, near Inverbervie, Angus, Scotland
12x40 inches. Watercolor on paper, c. 1990.
In a private collection in Arbroath, Scotland

View from Little Keithock Farmhouse, near Fettercairn, Angus, Scotland
28x40 inches. Watercolor on paper, c. 1992.
In a private collection in Glasgow, Scotland

Blackface Highlanders (Near Edzell, Angus, Scotland)
8x10 inches. Watercolor on paper, c. 1992
In a private collection in the U.S.

Blackface Highlanders, near Glamis Castle, Forfar, Angus, Scotland
20x40 inches. Pen and ink wash on paper, c. 1992
In a private collection in Banff, Scotland

Blackface Highlander, near Dunnottar Castle, Angus, Scotland
28x40 inches. Pen and ink on paper, c. 1991
In a private collection in Stonehaven, Scotland

Blackface Highlanders, near Little Keithock Farmhouse, Brechin Road, Angus, Scotland
30x30 inches. Pen and ink wash on paper, c. 1990
In a private collection in St. Andrews, Scotland

Scotland Independence Vote

Scottish voters (starting at the age of 16) are voting today in an attempt to once again secede from the 307 year-old union with England, Wales and Northern Ireland. A union that was started by a Scottish king, not an English king.

I love Scotland - I lived there from 1989-1992 and was seduced by one of the most beautiful nations on the planet and some of the hardest working, smart, people on the same planet... when you are in Scotland, and walk around the glens, and see the sun poke a hole in the clouds and shine on this planet's greenest pastures, one understands why people believe in magic. And thus my my heart says yes to independence, but the Scottish National Party -- like most politicians on the planet - are a bunch of crooks with half lies, empty promises and jingoistic fervor that history teaches us leads to no good end! What they have promised the Scots, if they vote yes, has been built mostly on deceit and promises of a super nanny state funded by disputed oil resources in the North Sea.

In spite of that, I would think that I would let my heart rule and I would vote yes to secede and take my own chances as an independent nation of very tough, brilliant people... same for the Catalans, who are in a similar situation in Scotland's ancestral home in Spain...

Here's what I'm afraid of -- if they secede...

1. The English will force them off the pound - as they should! Why would Scotland vote to leave, but keep the old currency?

2. They will also boycott any attempt by Scotland to join the European union - Even if they don't, it will take years for the Scots to join the EU.

3. They will actively work to isolate Scotland and teach those Celts a lesson!

4. Scotland is essentially a rural country with a very strong sense of identity, but lacks an industrial infrastructure - because the English have designed it that way for centuries; even the shipbuilding in Scotland is dependent on English imports.

5. The international courts will rule against Scotland for the oil wells outside of the CTML 12 mile limit - this is where future funding for the SNP nanny state is supposed to come from...

6. Scotland will depend on imports to form an industrial base.

7. The English will work to make that difficult.

8. A desperate Scotland will present a BRILLIANT opportunity for China (or Putin) to step in and "help the Scots."

Result? English arrogance and ethnic insolence (they consider Scots as WOGS) - will push the Scots into the arms of the old Reds and the new Reds; Mark my words... So I hope the Scots vote no. And of course... "IF IT'S NOT SCOTTISH ---- IT'S CRAP!"

More Scottish watercolors

You can probably tell that I've got a new gizmo that scans slides (remember slides) as digital files at the push of a button. Subsequently, I've begun the process to scan the thousands of slides that I have accumulated over the years.

The story so far: I lived in Scotland from 1989-1992 and while I was there, I was seduced by that ancient land and produced a lot of artwork focused on all the Scottish visual offerings around me.

Below are some watercolors (and one charcoal drawing) of some the birds which seemed to be constantly flying in formation all year round (especially the Canada geese). Most of these watercolors were rather large (30 x 40 inches) and all of them are in Scottish or American private collections, and a few have even shown up in British auction houses since they were done over 20 years ago.

Canada Geese, Brechin Skies, Angus, Scotland

Flight Formation, Edzell Skies, Angus, Scotland

Flight Formation, Fettercairn Skies, Angus, Scotland

When the farmers plowed the field, 100s of seagulls would fly from the North Sea and hover over the fields looking for insects to eat; as soon as the farmer was out of the way, they would land and start the buffet

Canada Geese, Montrose, Scotland, Charcoal and Conte, c. 1991

Edzell Arch

 As I've noted before, Queen Victoria, on her way to the Highlands, used to travel through the tiny Scottish village of Edzell, in the Angus region of Scotland. Thus, the locals built an arch to honor their English queen.

From 1989-1992, I lived a few minutes from the village of Edzell, and the arch was a much visited subject of my drawings back then. Below are some examples of those works from those years. These are all in multiple collections in Scotland and the US.

Edzell Arch

Queen Victoria, on her way to the Highlands, used to travel through the tiny Scottish village of Edzell, in the Angus region of Scotland. Thus, the locals built an arch to honor their English queen.

From 1989-1992, I lived a few minutes from the village of Edzell, and the arch was a much visited subject of my drawings back then. Below are some examples of those works from those years. These are all in multiple collections in Scotland and the US.

Edzell Arch, Edzell, Angus, Scotland - as seen from the village - c. 1989

Edzell Arch, Edzell, Angus, Scotland - as seen from the village - c. 1990

Edzell Arch, Edzell, Angus, Scotland - as seen from the Edzell to Fettercairn Road - c. 1991

The Declaration of Arbroath

Americans have not been the only people who have fought English armies for independence. England's own neighbor to the North, Scotland (where I lived for three years and visit often and love dearly) has fought English aggression for centuries.

Today marks the 1,690th anniversary of the Declaration of Arbroath, or the Scottish version of their Declaration of Independence, dated the 6th of April of 1320. It is addressed to the Pope:

To the most Holy Father and Lord in Christ, the Lord John, by divine providence Supreme Pontiff of the Holy Roman and Universal Church, his humble and devout sons Duncan, Earl of Fife, Thomas Randolph, Earl of Moray, Lord of Man and of Annandale, Patrick Dunbar, Earl of March, Malise, Earl of Strathearn, Malcolm, Earl of Lennox, William, Earl of Ross, Magnus, Earl of Caithness and Orkney, and William, Earl of Sutherland; Walter, Steward of Scotland, William Soules, Butler of Scotland, James, Lord of Douglas, Roger Mowbray, David, Lord of Brechin, David Graham, Ingram Umfraville, John Menteith, guardian of the earldom of Menteith, Alexander Fraser, Gilbert Hay, Constable of Scotland, Robert Keith, Marischal of Scotland, Henry St Clair, John Graham, David Lindsay, William Oliphant, Patrick Graham, John Fenton, William Abernethy, David Wemyss, William Mushet, Fergus of Ardrossan, Eustace Maxwell, William Ramsay, William Mowat, Alan Murray, Donald Campbell, John Cameron, Reginald Cheyne, Alexander Seton, Andrew Leslie, and Alexander Straiton, and the other barons and freeholders and the whole community of the realm of Scotland send all manner of filial reverence, with devout kisses of his blessed feet.

Most Holy Father and Lord, we know and from the chronicles and books of the ancients we find that among other famous nations our own, the Scots, has been graced with widespread renown. They journeyed from Greater Scythia by way of the Tyrrhenian Sea and the Pillars of Hercules, and dwelt for a long course of time in Spain among the most savage tribes, but nowhere could they be subdued by any race, however barbarous. Thence they came, twelve hundred years after the people of Israel crossed the Red Sea, to their home in the west where they still live today. The Britons they first drove out, the Picts they utterly destroyed, and, even though very often assailed by the Norwegians, the Danes and the English, they took possession of that home with many victories and untold efforts; and, as the historians of old time bear witness, they have held it free of all bondage ever since. In their kingdom there have reigned one hundred and thirteen kings of their own royal stock, the line unbroken a single foreigner.

The high qualities and deserts of these people, were they not otherwise manifest, gain glory enough from this: that the King of kings and Lord of lords, our Lord Jesus Christ, after His Passion and Resurrection, called them, even though settled in the uttermost parts of the earth, almost the first to His most holy faith. Nor would He have them confirmed in that faith by merely anyone but by the first of His Apostles -- by calling, though second or third in rank -- the most gentle Saint Andrew, the Blessed Peter's brother, and desired him to keep them under his protection as their patron forever.

The Most Holy Fathers your predecessors gave careful heed to these things and bestowed many favours and numerous privileges on this same kingdom and people, as being the special charge of the Blessed Peter's brother. Thus our nation under their protection did indeed live in freedom and peace up to the time when that mighty prince the King of the English, Edward, the father of the one who reigns today, when our kingdom had no head and our people harboured no malice or treachery and were then unused to wars or invasions, came in the guise of a friend and ally to harass them as an enemy. The deeds of cruelty, massacre, violence, pillage, arson, imprisoning prelates, burning down monasteries, robbing and killing monks and nuns, and yet other outrages without number which he committed against our people, sparing neither age nor sex, religion nor rank, no one could describe nor fully imagine unless he had seen them with his own eyes.

But from these countless evils we have been set free, by the help of Him Who though He afflicts yet heals and restores, by our most tireless Prince, King and Lord, the Lord Robert. He, that his people and his heritage might be delivered out of the hands of our enemies, met toil and fatigue, hunger and peril, like another Macabaeus or Joshua and bore them cheerfully. Him, too, divine providence, his right of succession according to or laws and customs which we shall maintain to the death, and the due consent and assent of us all have made our Prince and King. To him, as to the man by whom salvation has been wrought unto our people, we are bound both by law and by his merits that our freedom may be still maintained, and by him, come what may, we mean to stand.

Yet if he should give up what he has begun, and agree to make us or our kingdom subject to the King of England or the English, we should exert ourselves at once to drive him out as our enemy and a subverter of his own rights and ours, and make some other man who was well able to defend us our King; for, as long as but a hundred of us remain alive, never will we on any conditions be brought under English rule. It is in truth not for glory, nor riches, nor honours that we are fighting, but for freedom -- for that alone, which no honest man gives up but with life itself.

Therefore it is, Reverend Father and Lord, that we beseech your Holiness with our most earnest prayers and suppliant hearts, inasmuch as you will in your sincerity and goodness consider all this, that, since with Him Whose Vice-Regent on earth you are there is neither weighing nor distinction of Jew and Greek, Scotsman or Englishman, you will look with the eyes of a father on the troubles and privation brought by the English upon us and upon the Church of God. May it please you to admonish and exhort the King of the English, who ought to be satisfied with what belongs to him since England used once to be enough for seven kings or more, to leave us Scots in peace, who live in this poor little Scotland, beyond which there is no dwelling-place at all, and covet nothing but our own. We are sincerely willing to do anything for him, having regard to our condition, that we can, to win peace for ourselves.

This truly concerns you, Holy Father, since you see the savagery of the heathen raging against the Christians, as the sins of Christians have indeed deserved, and the frontiers of Christendom being pressed inward every day; and how much it will tarnish your Holiness's memory if (which God forbid) the Church suffers eclipse or scandal in any branch of it during your time, you must perceive. Then rouse the Christian princes who for false reasons pretend that they cannot go to help of the Holy Land because of wars they have on hand with their neighbours. The real reason that prevents them is that in making war on their smaller neighbours they find quicker profit and weaker resistance. But how cheerfully our Lord the King and we too would go there if the King of the English would leave us in peace, He from Whom nothing is hidden well knows; and we profess and declare it to you as the Vicar of Christ and to all Christendom.

But if your Holiness puts too much faith in the tales the English tell and will not give sincere belief to all this, nor refrain from favouring them to our prejudice, then the slaughter of bodies, the perdition of souls, and all the other misfortunes that will follow, inflicted by them on us and by us on them, will, we believe, be surely laid by the Most High to your charge.

To conclude, we are and shall ever be, as far as duty calls us, ready to do your will in all things, as obedient sons to you as His Vicar; and to Him as the Supreme King and Judge we commit the maintenance of our cause, csating our cares upon Him and firmly trusting that He will inspire us with courage and bring our enemies to nought.

May the Most High preserve you to his Holy Church in holiness and health and grant you length of days.

Given at the monastery of Arbroath in Scotland on the sixth day of the month of April in the year of grace thirteen hundred and twenty and the fifteenth year of the reign of our King aforesaid.

Freedom does not come easily.

Burns Night

Burns Night is celebrated each year in Scotland (and around the world) on or around January 25. It is in celebration to commemorate the life of the bard (poet) Robert Burns, who was born on January 25, 1759. It is also a great excuse for Scots and people of Scottish ancestry around the world (where the one-drop rule applies) to get together and drink single malt, and eat haggis, and drink single malt.

I lived in a 307-year-old farmhouse in Scotland from 1989-1992. The farmhouse, which had a fireplace in almost every room, and two in the bathroom and two in the huge kitchen, was named Little Keithock Farmhouse and was full of ghosts, as my two daughters, Vanessa and Elise can testify to. That's my drawing of the house to the left.

My landlord (Mr. Stewart) was a really nice guy and a big wig in the nearest town, which was the most ancient village of Brechin, and in 1991 he invited me to the village's Burns Night and not only that, but also to its greatest honor: to deliver the Burns' ode to the haggis and then stab the beast... in case you don't know, the whole focus of the evening centers on the entrance of the haggis on a large platter to the haunting sounds of a piper playing bagpipes. As soon as the haggis is on the table, the host (in this case me) reads the "Address to a Haggis." 

This is Robert Burns' ode written to that succulent Scottish dish. At the end of the reading, the haggis is ceremonially stabbed and sliced into two pieces and the meal begins.

This is what I was supposed to memorize and deliver:

Address to a Haggis

Fair fa' your honest, sonsie face,
Great chieftain o the puddin'-race!
Aboon them a' ye tak your place,
Painch, tripe, or thairm:
Weel are ye worthy o' a grace
As lang's my arm.
The groaning trencher there ye fill,
Your hurdies like a distant hill,
Your pin wad help to mend a mill
In time o need,
While thro your pores the dews distil
Like amber bead.
His knife see rustic Labour dight,
An cut you up wi ready slight,
Trenching your gushing entrails bright,
Like onie ditch;
And then, O what a glorious sight,
Warm-reekin, rich!
Then, horn for horn, they stretch an strive:
Deil tak the hindmost, on they drive,
Till a' their weel-swall'd kytes belyve
Are bent like drums;
The auld Guidman, maist like to rive,
'Bethankit' hums.
Is there that owre his French ragout,
Or olio that wad staw a sow,
Or fricassee wad mak her spew
Wi perfect scunner,
Looks down wi sneering, scornfu view
On sic a dinner?
Poor devil! see him owre his trash,
As feckless as a wither'd rash,
His spindle shank a guid whip-lash,
His nieve a nit;
Thro bloody flood or field to dash,
O how unfit!
But mark the Rustic, haggis-fed,
The trembling earth resounds his tread,
Clap in his walie nieve a blade,
He'll make it whissle;
An legs an arms, an heads will sned,
Like taps o thrissle.
Ye Pow'rs, wha mak mankind your care,
And dish them out their bill o fare,
Auld Scotland wants nae skinking ware
That jaups in luggies:
But, if ye wish her gratefu prayer,
Gie her a Haggis

As you can see, it is not written (nor delivered) in English, but in Old Scots language.

Being the amazing Renaissance man that I am, I took the challenge, and for about three months, I practiced my Scottish accent, with the help of Vanessa and Elise's local Scottish babysitter. 

I practiced and practiced, and she damned near died laughing most of the times... but towards the end she told me that I was pretty good and that I sounded like someone "from the Orkneys..."

On Burns' Night I arrived at the magnificent Victorian building that is the Brechin's Mechanics Hall, wearing my official US Navy kilt with the official US Navy tartan, ready for Freddy and confident about the challenge ahead. 

And yes, my babysitter had advised me (as all Scots do to newbies just to screw with them) that I was supposed to go commando under the tartan, which I did, and which caused a nightmarish next-morning shower event worth of its own story).

Scots are some of the friendliest people on this planet and Scotland is easily the most beautiful land on that same planet, and as a key part of the Night, everyone wanted to treat me to a drink.

That where the problem started.

I got there on an empty stomach about 7PM, you see... and to make things worse, I don't really like Scotch, single malt or otherwise... I know, I know... heresy.

But as a good guest, I accepted the dozens of Scotches delivered to me by the region's nicest gentlemen, and of course, everyone had a toast, and so... ahhh, I drank a lot of Scotland's best-known product.

The only issue to my spectacular abilities to hold my booze was the fact that the haggis wasn't actually delivered until 11PM, and by then I was three sheets to the wind and as drunk as I have ever been but a hundred times worse!

I actually like haggis and whenever it is on the menu (here or there) I usually order it... most of you would gag if you knew what it is... cough, cough... so that's not the storyline here.

Anyway, around 11PM, I was tipped that the haggis was being delivered... the bagpipes began to cry that spectacular sound of the Celtic world, and the huge platter arrived.

I walked unsteadily towards it, grabbed the large, sharp knife, and as protocol calls for, began waving it around while I started, in my best Scottish accent, to pay homage to the haggis while at the same time trying not to slice off my ears.

The hall was silent, and a couple of hundred people followed my every word and movement of the knife, sculpting invisible shapes in the air.

And then, as called for, I stabbed the beast and cut it in two.

The hall exploded in applause and I walked back to my table... so far so good... other than the unexplained laughter.

Mr. Stewart, who was sitting next to me, was standing and clapping furiously, as was everyone else. This by itself, my addled brain registered, was curious, as Scots are great people, but rather reserved. To my slight alarm, I also noted that he was laughing really, really, really hard.

So hard, in fact, that tears were running down his face.

Oh, oh....

He slapped my back as he hugged me and continued to laugh, and placed yet another single malt on my hand.

"That was great!" (sounds like "gret" in Scottish) he shouted above the din, as tears ran down his handsome face, "We've never heard 'Address to a Haggis' recited in a Japanese accent before!"

"What a gret ideee!"

Put yourself in my place for a moment here... there are a couple of hundred Scots thinking that I just pulled a comedy routine on their sacred ode, and they're laughing their ass off, so it must have worked... right???

"I practiced like crazy," I said, suddenly quite sober.

And that's the story of how this guy delivered on a Burns' Night in Brechin, Scotland, got drunk on his ass, made a lot of really good, decent Scottish men laugh, and had a most memorable night.

The story of how I got home, as I clearly couldn't and didn't drive, is a story for another day... suffice it to say that thistles usually grow on the side of most Scottish back roads and that if you brush against them, you are really fucked for a while. 

Scotch and thistles don't mix well on a really dark night in the Scottish country side.

Thoughts on the Trawick Prize

The Trawick Prize: Bethesda Contemporary Art Awards is a visual art prize produced by the Bethesda Arts and Entertainment District (through the spectacular generosity of Ms. Carol Trawick)  that honors artists from Maryland, Washington, D.C. and Virginia. The annual juried competition awards $14,000 in prize monies to selected artists and features the work of the finalists in a group exhibition. The 2012 finalists and their bios are at the end of this posting.

The 2012 exhibition will be held September 1-29 at Gallery B, located at 7700 Wisconsin Avenue, Suite E, Bethesda, MD 20814 (the former space of the Fraser Gallery). Winners will be announced September 5.

The finalists were selected by:

Dawn Gavin
Dawn Gavin was born in Bellshill, Scotland, and currently lives and works in Baltimore, Maryland. She has received a Bachelor of Arts (First Class) in Drawing and Painting, a Master of Fine Art and a Master of Science degree in Electronic Imaging from Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design, Dundee, Scotland. Her work investigates issues of identity and displacement, employing a range of media from collage and installed drawings to digital video. She has exhibited her work both nationally and internationally, including the Baltimore Museum of Art, The John Michael Kohler Art Centre (Sheboygen, MI), Maryland Institute College of Art, Meyerhoff Gallery (Baltimore, MD), The DCA Visual Research Centre (Dundee, Scotland), The Philadelphia Art Alliance and The Washington Project for the Arts (Washington D.C.). She is an Associate Professor in Drawing and Foundations at the University of Maryland, College Park.

Barbara Kelly Gordon
Barbara Kelly Gordon is an Associate Curator at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden at the Smithsonian where she focuses on contemporary international art, and especially film, video and new media. She has worked on major exhibitions ranging from a retrospective of Douglas Gordon to Visual Music to The Cinema Effect, which completes a three-city tour of Spain in 2012. During the 2011-2012 season her exhibitions include Directions : Pipilotti Rist; Directions : Grazia Toderi; EMPIRE3 (with Andy Warhol); Directions: Antonio Rovaldi and Black Box shows with Hans Op de Beeck (Belgium), Larent Grasso (France), Nira Pereg (Israel), and Ali Kazma (Turkey). Gordon, who was born and raised in Washington D.C., has lectured widely on contemporary art and recently served on the jury for Emerging Italian Artists at the Strozzi Palace in Florence, Italy.

N. Elizabeth Schlatter
N. Elizabeth Schlatter is Deputy Director and Curator of Exhibitions at the University of Richmond Museums, Virginia, where she has curated more than 20 exhibitions, including recent exhibitions of art by Carl Chiarenza, Andreas Feininger, Hans Friedrich Grohs, Sue Johnson, and Fiona Ross, and the exhibitions “Art=Text=Art: Works by Contemporary Artists,” “LEADED: the Materiality and Metamorphosis of Graphite” and “Form & Story: Narration in Recent Painting.” Prior to working at the University of Richmond, she was an exhibitions project director for the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service (SITES) in Washington, D.C. She has a bachelor’s degree in art history from Southwestern University in Texas, and a master’s in art history from George Washington University.

My picks from the finalists to win it all?: David D'Orio or Dean Kessman - both are intelligent conceptual artists who also have the rare talent to actually deliver a concrete and interesting product married to their conceptual ideas. However, usually the winner from any sort of allegedly objective art competition is determined by the biggest and most vociferous voice, and not personally knowing any of the three jurors, I don't know who's got the biggest mouth.

Another however: since five of the eight semifinalists come from the Baltimore area, I suspect that Scotland-born Dawn Gavin had the biggest and most vociferous voice over the two Sassenachs and the odds are (once again) stacked for a Baltimore-based artist to win the Trawick.

Who then? I'm betting Lillian Bayley Hoover, a brilliant and talented painter who now officially replaces Andrew Wodzianski as the "always the maid never the bride" of the major Bethesda Up! generous art prizes.

Lillian Bayley Hoover Lillian Bayley Hoover earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of North Carolina, Asheville and her Master of Fine Arts from the Maryland Institute College of Art. Hoover’s work has been featured in the Baltimore area and beyond, and recently appeared in the 94th edition of New American Paintings and the Summer 2011 issue of the Little Patuxent Review. She is the recipient of a grant from the Center for Emerging Visual Artists, which enabled her to conduct research and make photographs in Istanbul, Turkey. Hoover has received many awards, including “Young Artist” for the Bethesda Painting Awards and two Individual Artist Awards from the Maryland State Arts Council, and she has thrice been a semifinalist for both Baltimore’s Sondheim Prize and Bethesda’s Trawick Prize.
David D’Orio David D’Orio is the executive director of DC GlassWorks, a public access glass blowing facility in Maryland, just outside of Washington D.C. He earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in sculpture and a Bachelor of Arts in sociology from the University of Hartford/Hartford Art School in Hartford, CT. His work has been shown at Artomatic in Crystal City, the Marlboro Gallery of Prince George’s Community College and as part of the Arlington Arts Center Fall Solos. In his work, D’Orio explores “the ideology of technology as the source of solutions for social problems (both real, invented and imagined). … This work has the sense of a forgotten or undiscovered manufacturer/inventor whose sole purpose is to create objects that defy classification.”
Skye Gilkerson Skye Gilkerson grew up at the edge of the known world, in the space that Thomas Jefferson thought would take 1,000 years to populate. After her childhood on a farm in South Dakota, she’s slowly migrated along the rust belt, landing in Baltimore, where she has a studio at Current Space. Skye has been an artist-in-residence with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, the Anderson Ranch Arts Center, the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts and the Philadelphia Art Hotel. Her work is in the Robert F. Pfannebecker Collection, the Notre Dame of Maryland collection and numerous personal collections in the U.S. and Germany. She received her Master of Fine Arts in sculpture from Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, MI, and a Bachelor of Arts in studio art from Bethel University in St. Paul, MN.  Gilkerson was a finalist for the 2011 Trawick Prize.
Dean Kessmann Dean Kessmann lives and works in Washington, D.C. His work has appeared in solo exhibitions at the Orlando Museum of Art in Florida and Conner Contemporary Art in Washington, D.C. among numerous other locations across the United States. His work has also been featured in many group shows, including those at Strathmore in North Bethesda and Meyerhoff Gallery, Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore. He received a Master of Arts from Sothern Illinois University, Carbondale and is currently the chair of the Department of Fine Arts and Art History at The George Washington University in Washington, D.C.
Nate Larson Nate Larson is full-time faculty in the photography department at Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore. His work with photographic media, artist books and digital video has been widely shown across the U.S. and internationally. He serves on the board of directors of the Society for Photographic Education. His current project GEOLOCATION, in collaboration with Marni Shindelman, tracks GPS coordinates associated Twitter tweets and pairs the text with a photograph of the originating site to mark the virtual information in the real world. Larson has a master of fine Arts from The Ohio State University and a Bachelor of Arts from Purdue University.
Joshua Smith Joshua Wade Smith was raised on the outskirts of a small border town in South Texas. He is a nationally exhibited object-based performer and sculptor and currently a fellow at Hamiltonian Artists in Washington, D.C. His work has been featured in exhibitions at the Contemporary Museum-Baltimore and the Arlington Arts Center, among others. He received a Master of Fine Arts degree from the Mt. Royal School at MICA in 2010. In his recent work, Smith explores themes of labor, masculinity and gymnastic investigations of landscape. His installations and performances feature contraptions and repetitious actions that emphasize the transfer of value through absurd or thankless tasks; his work is often about making a show of the “Work” itself through schematics, photo documentation and endurance based on drawings.
Diane Szczepaniak Diane Szczepaniak earned a Master’s degree in art education from the University of Cincinnati and a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Northern Kentucky University. Her work has been shown in group exhibitions including SCULPTURE NOW 2012 at Pepco Edison Place Gallery in Washington, D.C., InLiquid Benefit Auction in Philadelphia, PA, among others and in many solo exhibitions. She was named a semi-finalist for Baltimore’s Sondheim Prize in 2011 and received an Individual Artist Award in Visual Arts: Sculpture from the Maryland State Arts Council in 2009. About her work, Szczepaniak says: “Colors naturally hold meaning for me and I have painted in response to images from poems that I find mysterious, feelings aroused by music, that familiar experience Wallace Stevens calls ‘passions in rain, or moods in falling snow,’ and even meditations on thoughts.”
Hannah Walsh Hannah Walsh earned her Master of Fine Arts in sculpture and extended media from Virginia Commonwealth University and a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Indiana University. Her work has been shown in numerous exhibitions nationally and abroad, including The Boiler, Pierogi Gallery in Brooklyn; Little Berlin in Philadelphia; The Wayfarers in Brooklyn; Nominimo Gallery in Quito, Ecuador and the Reynolds Gallery in Richmond. Walsh explains her interest in cheerleading as a subject: “All-star cheerleading squads are not affiliated with any sports team. They only cheer competitively, in other words, for themselves. These squads embody several of my interests: the simultaneous occurrence of sincerity and extreme artifice, skilled physicality, gender performance and American identity.”