implicit art

myartspace.com announced the top winners of their 2008 Undergraduate Scholarship Competition this week. The site and blog have been amazingly supportive of emerging artists with their community, interviews/blog and competitions over the last 2 years since their inception. I myself have become more and more involved with them (after an interview with Brian, I’ve begun doing a few guest blogs, which will increase in the coming months), and have started encouraging both my grads and undergrads to join, post their work, enter the competitions. Via their site, below are the top-3 winners of the recent  competition where the winning undergraduate students will split $8000 in cash scholarships. To see the 50 finalists, click HERE.

——— Via the myartspace blog ———

First Place Winner: Sara Susin (Stanford University)
Sara Susin was born in Denver, Colorado. She is currently completing her BA at Stanford University with a major in Studio Art and a minor in Creative Writing. She has been painting at the Art Students League of Denver since 1990. She has taken classes from Heather Delzell, Kevin Weckbach, Kim English, Ron Hicks, Ken Velastro and Quang Ho. In 2004, Sara won the Allied Arts Award. In 2005 she was highlighted in Southwest Art Magazine’s annual “21 under 30” feature. Sara has sold paintings to private and corporate collections including the Kaiser Permanente Corporate Collection. Sara plans to pursue a career as an oil painter. To read an interview with Sara, Click HERE.

Back to the Sun, 40″ x 48″, oil on wood. Sara Susin‘s Winning Gallery

Second Place Winner: Jessica Brown (University of Alaska)
Jessica Brown is completing her BA in Art degree at the University of Alaska Anchorage. Jessica has participate in a number of solo and group exhibits. In her own words “I believe in the off-kilter, the beauty of the asymmetrical, and the balance of opposition. I revel in the surprising, messy and often humorous nature of life. My works are inspired by the question marks surrounding cultural dualities such as mind/body, man/nature, and self/other. Whether with painting, performance, or installations my aim is to stimulate introspective dialogue in my viewer and expand their intrigue of the absurdities of life.” To Read an interview with Jessica, click HERE.

Match Book, altered book, ink and matches. Jessica Brown’s Winning Gallery

Third Place Winner: Zach Stein (University of Kentucky)
Zach Stein’s installations, monotypes, and paintings tend to be experimental in nature. This is achieved by the fact that Zach utilizes a variety of mediums in an intuitive manner– everything from hot glue to rum. He is an artist who is not afraid to test the limits of his materials. Zach is currently a student at the University of Kentucky. Zach is currently and undergraduate student in art education/studio at University of Kentucky. To read an interview with Zach, click HERE

faulter, 60×60, acrylic on plastic bags. Zach Stein’s Winning Gallery

Catherine McCormack-Skiba, the founder myartspace and CEO noted “The student body within myartspace is significant in size and importance. We devised a scholarship program for both our graduate and undergraduate students to compete for consideration and win a meaningful cash scholarship. We hope to expand this program each year.”

Catherine McCormack-Skiba went on to say, “We had entries to the scholarship program from students at over 1,200 colleges and universities. The unbridled spirit and creativity from this group is quite impressive. While the top winners receive their recognition and award money, virtually all the submissions were of top-notch quality. We applaud the young contemporary artists in school today. Their contribution to the fine art world will be felt for decades to come. We are so excited from this first scholarship program we will be launching our 2009 scholarship program later this year and hope to see more than double the participation. Myartspace remains focused on improving the lives and careers of its community members.”

About myartspace:

myartspace, the premier online venue for contemporary art, is one of the fastest growing and diverse communities on the internet. Its members include more than 50,000 artists, collectors, galleries and other art world professionals from across the globe, and it currently hosts the work of nearly 30,000 artists. Membership is free and artist can upload an unlimited amount of work including images, music and video. Myartspace is created and run by CatMacArt Corporation. www.catmacart.com.