A Letter from the Winning Artist, Lauren McCleary

Presently, I am in my first year of Graduate School at Washington State University in Pullman, Washington. It is a two-year Masters program for Fine Arts, and upon completion I would like to pursue a career as a professional artist. Before moving to the rolling wheat fields of Eastern Washington, I grew up in Lakewood, Colorado. The transition has been exciting, and I look forward to exploring more of the Northwest’s unique surroundings.

As far back as I can remember I have been totally infatuated with animals, most notably of the equine variety. I started riding at age 5 and horses have been a consistent part of my life ever since. Animals have also had a dominant presence in my artwork since childhood. That is why I did not hesitate to enter a piece for the sheep festival, it was right up my alley!

Being a mixed media artist, I experiment with a lot of different ways of working, cut paper being one of them. Narrowing down my materials to a piece of paper and an X-Acto knife is a challenge I have really come to thrive on. I am interested in the subtractive method of cutting areas away in order to make an image appear. I usually do not entirely plan out a design before getting started. I tend to let one cut inform the next. Working this way has a meditative quality for me because of the amount of focus and attention it requires.

– Lauren McCleary

2008 Competition Honorable Mention Awards

Zina Poliszuk, Marriottsville, MD See page 1 of catalog.

Meredith Setser, Indianapolis, IN See page 137 of catalog.

Beth Schaible, Mt. Rainier, MD See page 8 of catalog.

2009 Festival Catalog Cover Art Competition

Every year the Committee uses art celebrating sheep and wool to create a new design for the catalog cover, poster, t-shirts and other items available at the Festival. This has become a distinctive part of each year’s Festival. There will be another competition to select the art for the 36th Festival in 2009.

The winning artist will receive $1,000.

There will also be up to four Honorable Mention Awards of $100. The deadline for entries will be November 10, 2008.

Complete rules and instructions on how to submit entries will be posted on the Festival web site in July 2008.

Artists may also request a competition announcement by contacting us at P.O. Box 99, Glenwood, MD 21738, 410-531-3647 or info@sheepandwool.org