I sent a few items to be juried in the Best of Missouri Hands art show. My work was soundly rejected as being unprofessional, of poor quality, and poor workmanship. None of these things was more and one inch in size.....just thought I would like to share this with you guys....the artists have so much to say about being fair and allowing freedom of expression.....wonder what you guys think?

Nort bad at all. I've seen work on factory guns that didn't come close to your art.

Bye
Jack

First: Very nice work!

Second: "Artists" tend to be liberal/socialist/tree-huggers living in an Ivory Tower, so unless you submitted your work to a show that specialized in that sort of thing, you no doubt got rejected because of anti-gun bias, not the quality of your work.

I'd send a letter to whoever sponsored the show and ask them for a copy of the written guidelines the judges used to determin what was acceptable quality work.

I know you'll get a reply saying something like, "It's the judge's opinion..." and that's good. While you're waiting for the BS reply they may or may not send, do some checking and see if they have received any government funding (state/feds). When they ignore you or give you the opinion excuse, send them another letter stating that you will be filing a formal action complaint with the state and or feds about their mis-use of government funding. I forget where it's at, but there is a law stating that if they receive govt funding, they must have written guidelines for the judges. Do your best to make a stink and get their funding pulled.

Artwork is "freedom of expression" and their claim of "unprofessional" is pure BS as artwork cannot be judged as "professional".

I think your work looks great!

Do you do scroll work, and what is your turn around time and price?
I have an old model Stainless Vaquero that really needs some scroll on the cylinder.
Would send the cylinder to you!

mtmrolla
I'm sorry for your experience, but as pfoxy said, artists are are more politically correct then the rest of world.
If you had executed your excellent work on a stainless steel toilet seat they would have given you first prize.
Don't let these twirps discourage you.
Jim

Artists, in general, are the poorest judges of art! They tend to go with whatever style or medium is "in" at the time, regardless of the quality of the work. My best friend is an accomplished artist and is invited to judge art shows a couple of times a year. He never fails to receive scathing attacks after a judging, because he rejectsout of hand any works that are of the latest "cool" style and goes for the works that are truly original.

I couldn't agree more with what the folks are posting. Forget the "artists" and take it to a gun show and you're get a fair judging of the quality of your work.

The quality of your work isn't in the class of the great Italian artists, but I wouldn't mind having a gun that you engraved. I'll second what Dan said, forget the "artists" and go to the gun shows where folks appreciate good work.

I've got a friend whose wife has been painting and doing art work for 35 years. She has all but given up because of "art show" experts and she's as good an artist as I've seen.

When you get into the rairified atmosphere of the "art" world it and anything related to firearms usually don't mix. You just keep pushing that graver, I happen to like your work.

After seeing your work, I would say that they had Morons for judges, that wouldn't know art if it were to bite them in the butt.

As an artist myself (pottery & automotive paint) I can say that is excellent work. I'm sorry so many art shows out there are representing anti-gun politics.