My AIS Adventure...errr, Disaster...Okay, Experience!

Aug 1 (edited) • 💬 General

UPDATE Aug 8th 2025: As if this post isn't long enough! I heard form Classen's Art Gallery. They have posted the correct image on their website! On top of that, they apologized for the delay caused by everything related to getting the show installed, etc. As readers of this post know, the screw up was all mine. I thank them for graciously helping me clean it up!

(Chris did ask me to submit something on this subject; however, he has not seen this post. So it’s only partly his fault.)

Several months ago I came across a call for entries to the 26th Annual American Impressionist Society National Juried Exhibition. This is a fairly prestigious event, drawing nationally recognized artists. As is typical for these large art organizations, entrants must be a member and pay an entry fee based on the number of works entered.

I don’t often submit to such national shows because the competition is pretty stiff not to mention intimidating. I was on the verge of passing on yet another expensive opportunity to be humiliated, when a particular painting popped to mind. For some reason, I had a strong feeling it might fit in an impressionistic show. Oddly, it had recently come back into my possession after being purchased by a patron. He had also become a dear friend over the years.

I’ll digress for just a moment…it’s part of the adventure. This patron, I’ll call him Doctor, (although he wasn’t) is one of the most unique individuals I’ve ever met. He grew up in the “hippie days”, as did I, but unlike me, he really was one. He was also a singer, composer, musician, poet, design teacher, artist and way more. Kind, gentle, and original in every way, he lived his entire life surrounded by art and artists. He read poetry with Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Jim Morrison (yes, that one), played briefly in a band opening for the Everly Brothers, has a needle point in the Smithsonian collection, and on and on. I’m not kidding. Like many true artists, he lived a very modest life, although he continued to purchase art, including mine, with what little money he had. He loved being surrounded by it.

He purchased a painting from me that was one of my favorites. Not long ago, he passed. Sadly, there wasn’t enough money in the estate to bury him and take care of other matters. As part of a donation to the cause, I bought the painting back.

All that is just to tell you one thing, I had, and still have, the strangest feeling that the Doctor nudged me on the elbow about that painting as I read the call.

So I decided to do it. I joined up with AIS ($65), submitted one entry ($35) and forwarded a digital photo to the Jury. It was accepted. I was thrilled, not only to be in my first ‘national’ show, but to join the company of some really good painters. To make it more thrilling, two friends of mine living right here in Sacramento were accepted as well: James Crandall and Philippe Gandiol! And we were accompanied by a more recent friend and a fellow Californian, Jim McVicker, one of the best painters in the country.

Thus started the “Disaster” leg of my national show adventure.

The next step was to get the painting to the Classen Gallery in Montana, where the show was to be held. This was more new ground for me. First I had to purchase a reinforced and padded cardboard box specifically made for shipping paintings. This was a requirement of the Gallery, and is fairly common now. I guess they are tired of duct-taped cardboard boxes full or tons of plastic ‘peanuts’ and dented paintings. The Gallery also uses the box to return your painting if it didn’t sell or without your painting if it did. You’ll see in a moment why one might want it back even if there’s no painting to return.

I purchased it online, and had it shipped to me. ($170 box and shipping total). I did buy a slightly larger box than necessary in case I ever have to ship another painting. (They are reusable. I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or not. But it doesn’t matter, because they are required!)

I packed my 12” x 24” painting - 18” x 30” framed - and took it to UPS. The cost of shipping to the gallery in Montana and then back to me in California was…hang onto your hat….$280. Yikes. The consolation is that If the box comes back empty, I’ll get a $60 refund. That would be double nice.

Last night was the awards ceremony, which I was able to watch on Facebook. I think that’s kind of cool. Anyway, it was no surprise when my name did not come up. I am pleased to say, however, that two of my art friends, Jim Crandall and Jim McVicker, did get to the winners circle. There’s no surprise there, either!

You might think that with no award to brag about, and with the only remaining suspense being whether my very expensive shipping box comes back empty or full, I am coming to the end of my AIS experience. No such luck! There is another part of the disaster leg remaining. The worst part. I could say that’s no surprise either, but I don’t want to sound bitter.

Way back in the beginning, when I submitted my digital entry, I attached the wrong photo. I’ll let that sink in for a moment. If it were a photo of a wrong painting and still got juried in, that might be something that could be managed. I could ship the ‘wrong painting’ and then make up excuses for why the size and subject don’t match the entry form. But I’m not that lucky. It was the wrong photo of the right painting. I like to call it the ‘green’ photo because it has a distinct green cast to such an extent that it looks like a night scene. Unfortunately the subject in the actual painting is in bright desert daylight.

I can’t explain how I submitted the wrong photo or why I didn’t immediately notice it when they sent me an email confirmation of acceptance. Nor can I explain how it got into the show, or why I didn’t throw myself off the roof when I finally did wake up to the horror. Suffice it to say, it is the green photo that went into the beautiful 35+ page show catalog and into the Gallery’s listing of all show participants on their beautiful website. I couldn’t make this up. I wouldn't make this up.

There’s one other detail that you might not know about if you haven’t yet submitted digitally to many shows. The pretty-much universal requirement now is that the painting received must be IDENTICAL IN EVERY WAY to the photo that was juried in. Violations are rejected from the show. So I lay in bed at night on sweaty sheets worried that someone would compare my photo with my actual painting and out I would go! I also thought about submitting a correct image and begging for it to be used on the website, so visitors and patrons could see the painting as it truly is. But then I worried that a request would trigger an alert, followed by a rejection. To be totally honest, I am still a little leery about putting this unexplainable blunder in print. The show has just opened, and my not-green painting is hanging in the Gallery.

In the end, I did submit a request along with the correct digital image. The Gallery has ignored it, and I am grateful. They might be doing me a kindness by not turning over any rocks at this late date. So my painting that I liked so much, the one that my friend, the Doctor, prompted me to submit, the painting that got me into my first juried national show, will be forever green. Kind of like Kermit, although not as charming.

Would I do it all again?

Hell, yes!

I mean, I think so!

At least I will have a box to ship the painting in.

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