I cannot believe how quickly this summer has gone by. This past weekend was the weekend for the Alaska State Fair Art Submissions. The State Fair is still a few weeks away, but they have to have time to hang up and get the judging completed before the fair starts. The fair signals the end of summer here in Alaska, so I don’t know how I feel about that!

This year I knew was going to be busy. Early in the spring I painted a picture, and I decided to hold on to it as I was thinking I may not have time to paint a different one. And, with the commissions that I had the opportunity to paint, along with working with my husband, I was right, there was no extra time.

Even at that, I had completely spaced out the fair. But, I was at our local bank, and one of the bank tellers also submits crocheted items to the fair and mentioned that the date was fast approaching. I was grateful for her reminder, so I got online to see what the dates were as well to see if anything in the rules had changed since last year.

The rules had not changed, but the way to submit had been altered slightly, and I feel like it streamlined the process. The painting has to be framed behind glass. It has to have a wire hanger attached to the sides of the frame. It cannot be bigger than 16×24 framed, and can’t be smaller than 8×10 framed. Not all artwork has to be framed, but watercolors do. The artwork has to have been painted in the last 2 years. This year they wanted a 3×5 card attached to the back with name, contact, and fair entrant number on the back. That’s the part that sped up the submission process.

There is one rule that applies to my division in particular, the professional division. The artwork can’t have ever been for sale or had prints made of it. Thus the reason I had “saved” this piece of artwork. A new option for professionals was the opportunity to display a business card with the piece of art. I thought that was a nice change.

Friday evening after work I went into Palmer. I got there about 6:00 figuring that there’d be a line since it was after work, but no line. I walked in, handed the person my artwork and left. It took a whole 5 minutes or less. It’s always a bit stressful handing off a large original piece of artwork to a stranger, but I guess no matter what, I can paint a new one. But, no 2 pieces are the same.

Now to the waiting process. But, I have a challenge… and a reward! For anyone who goes to the Alaska State Fair and finds my artwork. Take a picture of you with my artwork and post it on your social media and tag me. Any tags I get, when I get the picture home and digitized, I will send you a free 5×7 of this piece of artwork!

My favorite places at the fair are the buildings where I get to see what people create, the artwork and photography, the quilting, sewing, crocheting, woodwork, all the different things, along with the farm and garden. The rest of the fair I could do without, but I love to come together and celebrate the beautiful things people of done throughout the year. I look forward to checking all that kind of stuff out in the not too far distant future!

Featured Artwork: