Seeing is believing...or is it?

I attended the June exhibit and touched base with a few excited friends as they were celebrating their joyful experience. Congratulations to all ! I picked up my non-accepted work and was dumbfounded by the condition the new golden frame I had bought special for this exhibit. All four sides had scratch marks and one deep gouge on a once pristine surface on my frame; Marilyn asked me to forward my questions about how this could even be possible if it was never installed in the gallery exhibit. I then walked down the hall and one young artist was in tears that she had received gruff critique when she picked up her works. I glanced around the room and saw some incredible works that were not even in the show...one lady asked to buy my work but I had already promised it to another. Jack Richardson and I discussed how we had seen many of these works in the gallery or in the LCA previous exhibits. Maybe the committee might want to level the playing field by re-evaluating how old the works submitted should be? Are we judging the art works or the mattes inside the frames? Maybe guidelines should be presented in the future to clarify exactly what a juror may grade your art pieces. I know I have been rejected, non-accepted and totally denied by the best of the best, and, yet, the next time I entered the work I may have been awarded a recognition or prize. Oh well, I went to support and celebrate the hard work of all my LCA artists. Just keep one foot in front of another and believe in what you do. Imagine and Live in Peace, Mary Helen Fernandez Stewart