Awards

The BSAF Awards Committee selects three artists annually to honor. Two receive an Award of Excellence and one the Media Award. At the start of each year’s festival, the committee gathers together to canvas the festival vendors to select these recipients.

The Awards Committee bestows two Award of Excellence ribbons to two artisans who show outstanding skill in his or her chosen media. These awards are based on overall quality of the artist’s work, and not on a particular piece. Criteria to judge work is based on originality, craftsmanship and skillful use of materials. The winners must create all of their work.

The third award and ribbon is the Media Award. The Awards Committee chooses one piece of work from an artist the group feels best represents the spirit of the festival. The committee searches for a piece that is an original or “one-of-a-kind”.

The selected artist will be asked for permission to use the artwork to create the next year’s BSAF logo. The Awards, Publicity, and Tee Shirt Committees create a flat art logo to be used on promotional materials such as tee-shirts, flags and banners. The artwork will also be on posters, programs, and newspaper and TV advertising distributed in a four state area. If the committee choose to purchase the artwork, it will possibly be donated to a Brookings community charitable art auction after its use.

2009 Award Winners

Media Award 2009 - Tooled Copper Art/Oberkirsch Designs
www.tooledcopperart.com
See photo

Mark Oberkirsch has been a professional artist since 1975 when his metalworking hobby became his livelihood. He became interested in the Arts & Crafts Movement in the late eighties after being invited by Bruce Johnson to exhibit at the first Grove Park Inn Conference with his collection of American Art Pottery. He decided to use his metalworking skills to create Arts and Crafts designs in copper that would be compatible with the antique as well as the revival decor.

The technique used to create his art is a form of copper repousee. Self taught, his designs are drawn by hand from the back of the copper with a pointed stylus. No molds or stamps are used. The metal is turned over and paint is laid within the resulting raised lines. The remaining copper surface is oxidized and then lacquered. The finished art is mounted on a sand colored board, matted and framed under glass in a quartered oak mission style frame. An accomplished woodworker, he also makes his own framing. He takes great pride in the fact that his art is true to the Arts and Crafts ideal being totally handcrafted by the hand of the artist.

Award of Excellence 2009 - Julie Crabtree-Pfannes, Bratach Sith Studio
www.jcrabtreeart.com
See photo

Fine Art Embroidery - This work is created on cotton fabric. Julie paints the background to give a wash of color. Occasionally more detail is painted. Some pieces of work have a felted background incorporated giving a whole different aspect to the piece.

Next, the stitchery transforms the artwork by using hand stitches and free motion machine embroidery, using a basic sewing machine with only straight or zigzag stitches.

This free motion technique is like drawing with a needle and thread and requires constant changing of threads to blend the colors. Texture and depth is created by hand stitching using a variety of threads and fabrics. Julie is always experimenting to find the right technique for each piece, making each an individual work of art.

Award of Excellence 2009 - Lindsey Tull
www.lindseytull.wordpress.com
See photo

Lindsey has always been interested in art of one kind or another. She took every art class offered from first grade through high school, while studying art on her own after school and on the weekends. In 2007 she received her degree from the Academy of Art, and began her career in oil painting. Her style ranges from realism to impressionism, and she paints landscapes, still lifes, and commissioned portraits. Traveling around the country selling and marketing her artwork is her part time job, while painting remains her full time focus. She continues to strive to get better and further develop her style on what she hopes is just the beginning of a long, successful career in painting.