Re: Botanical Illustration

["Karen Randall" <krandall@world.std.com>]

James wrote:

> Going overboard with "rules and regulations" for such a thing right off
the
> bat would be a sure fire way to kill it before we could even determine the
> interest level.

I agree.

>This is one reason why more people don't enter the
> Aquascaping Contest - there are far too many on the APD who gripe and
snipe
> because the "quality" of North American aquascapes aren't up to the level
of
> "Amano". This intimidates a lot of people who might otherwise enter. I
took
> a very close look at the entries in last year's event and I saw quite a
few
> I'd be proud to have in my living room.
>
> To the nay-sayers I say "Puleeze!, get off yer duff and DO something about
> it."

If I had the time, I'd like to see how many of those nay-sayers HAVE
entered... not many I suspect ;-)

> And I don't think "aquarists" would even be capable of judging such things
> anyway - you would need botanists to judge technical merit and art critics
> to judge artistic merit. I'm neither a botanist nor an art critic - I just
> know what I like.

I think that's OK too.  I think if you pick too "highly qualified" judges,
it would intimidate people too.  For at least the first year, you might just
want to let the judges of the aquascaping contest itself judge the artwork
too.  As you said, even if they're not artists themselves, I'm sure they
know what they like, and that's the most important part of art!

To carry your idea one stap farther, in the "art work" section  Why not
offer a division for dynamite photos too?  Not for aquascapes, but for that
outstanding photo of the Amano shrimp sitting on a pearling bed of Riccia,
or that lovely Anubias flower...

(those would be useful for TAG too <hint, hint> ;-)

Karen

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