Get the Backstory on our 2-D and 3-D 2016 Spring Online Juried Grand Prize Winners

	Grand Prize 2D – Kathleen Giles of Gasport, NY for Mallory’s Hands, watercolor

When Kathleen Giles sat down for lunch in a cafe and saw the light surrounding the young woman seated outside it was too perfect for her to pass up. She snapped a photo through the cafe window. The watercolor painting she eventually created from that photograph went on to win many accolades and the local paper even started a search to identify the woman in the painting.

Eventually Kathleen was properly introduced to Mallory who now models regularly for Kathleen’s work. After working on her winning piece “Mallory Hands” Kathleen was inspired to work on a series of hand paintings.

“I love what being an artist does for my life; the people I meet and the inspiration I find – it’s a wonderful way to live,” says Giles. “It feels so good to be recognized for the way I paint, to develop a style and then know that other people can also appreciate it.”

Grand Prize 3D – Mary Taylor of Honeoye Falls, NY, for Panther, steel rod sculpture

Sculptor Mary Taylor has had a long love affair with Florida’s wildlife. On a recent trip to Florida, she was introduced to the Florida panther while working with a wildlife biologist to develop a list of Florida’s endangered species for a series she is working on. She was inspired to create this steel rod sculpture to commemorate efforts to restore the dwindling panther population. She consulted many experts about the species and found that so few panthers were left in the wild at one point there they had inbred physical oddities, like a certain cowlick on their hindquarters and a crooked tail. Thanks to conservation efforts for the panther, these oddities are no longer evident in the wild and Taylor’s “Panther” represents the Florida panther as it is today.

Check out this video of Mary creating the Panther.