So the juried phase of the Showdown came and went. I have to say I wasn’t impressed with the final 30. I believe only one representational painting made it to the final round and that was this one: Even my favorite abstract paintings didn’t make it. I have to question the logic of comparing one work against another. As I voted in the final round, I found myself comparing two works, neither of which I liked, and indiscriminately choosing between them. In other words, I ended up giving my vote to a piece that I did not like. I suppose that this shows how subjective art is and how my taste isn’t inline with the majority (or the Saatchi jury).

View the Art in Jury Voting

Today was the final day of the preliminary voting where the top 300 out of almost 6,000 entries advanced to the Juried Voting phase. I am happy to say that I made it to the Juried Voting! Throughout the preliminary voting period, my standing would swing from 208 to 368 and anywhere in between. To my horror, this morning my rank had slipped to it’s lowest all week. I was very relieved when it bounced back in the nick of time. Now, out of these 300 the only the top 30 will advance to the final voting.

I looked at the final 300 and quickly selected my personal favorites. I was surprised by how many abstract paintings I loved. There are a lot of additional works that I liked, but these had the most emotional impact.