Illustrators of the Future 1st Quarter Winners Announced for Volume 40
And the winners are:
Arthur Haywood from Pennsylvania
Selena Meraki from Netherlands
Carina Zhang from Rhode Island
Finalists:
Tina Isola from Tennessee
Claire Keogh from Ireland
Jasmine Lu from Texas
Selma Nieuwoudt from South Africa
Jenny Wang from Canada
Semi-Finalists:
Anahi Alvarez from Nevada
Vassilios Bayiokos from New Jersey
Sadie Grace Bradford from Oregon
Abby Caldwell from Virginia
Waylon Capps from Alabama
Connor Chamberlain from New Zealand
Ariel Chuang from Arizona
Levi DeMatteo from Illinois
Rachael Douglass from Tennessee
CL Fors from California
Semhar Hailesellassie from Nebraska
Noura Ibrahim from Arizona
Vivek Kumar from India
Laya’zere from Pennsylvania
Freya Lee from New York
Daniel Maidman from New York
Paula Mayo from Columbia
Kristin Nika from Michigan
Nisnow from Washington
Lia Ottinot from Florida
Mo Sanford from California
Honorable Mentions:
Sally A Lee from Florida
Luis Anez from Wisconsin
Jen Apodaca from New Mexico
Deborah Basoto from New Jersey
Emily Boecker from Illinois
Alexandria Brazelton from California
Gage Carter from Idaho
Felicia Donkor from Canada
Jane Dunn from Washington
Samandar Elubaevuch from New York
Emelia Feldman from Washington
Concetta Franciamore from Italy
Lee Ghebremeskel from Ohio
Noah Graff from Georgia
Samantha Rose Gray from Georgia
Ashton Hamilton from Georgia
Zhijun He from New Jersey
Mya James from Maryland
Gab K De Jesus from Georgia
K’Bre Kucera from Texas
Sandy Lu from Connecticut
Stormalong Hugo Lunt from California
Marlie McConnell from Georgia
Giovanni Mezquite-Vazquez from Florida
Thalia Miles from Florida
Nhi Nguyen from Colorado
Emeka Ohumaegbulem from Texas
Vera Ong from Texas
Taylor Overbey from Louisiana
Max Prehn from New York
Jaid Rakhimgaziev from Uzbekistan
Sabriartchu from Austria
Dr. Anastasya Shepherd from United Kingdom
Mikal Simmons from New Jersey
Kyle Solomon from Florida
Ocean Unger from Florida
Yazhi Zheng from New York
I see that there are not as many winners as the previous 4th quarter. Maybe there has been a drop in participation but I am not surprised by this. I have been active in the art contest since 1998 and I have only gotten 1 semi-finalist, 3 honorable mentions and 1 actual judge critique (which was supposed to be a big deal). I understand that only the best art could possibly ever make it, yet sometimes I wonder if maybe the judges’ decisions are a little too unrealistic and over the top. it’s really hard to think otherwise when you have been trying and improving for a long time and you still get nowhere and so that’s what I believe.
Jose, Contest entries have been highest ever each year for the past nine years running, and from over 175 countries.
John-all of what you are saying may be true- but, visually speaking-at least when I saw the current list-it looked a lot shorter than usual-(unless there usually happens to be a smaller turn out on that particular quarter) which I had heard rumors about. Also, what has happened to all the other type of entry levels like “Silver Honorable Mentions”-besides the winner and honorable mentions. Why have they been dissolved ? I think that his further narrows down the opportunities for artists to win. Sorry, but all the statistics in the world, are not going to convince me. I know what I see and if I hadn’t felt this way about it, I would not have even written about it in the first place.
Jose, The illustrator contest has not had Silver HMs. If you look back through past quarters, you will find this is comparable. The last quarter did have more names as that is always the biggest quarter, being the last quarter of the Contest year.
I am not trying to convince you of anything; merely providing data that you can decide to accept or not.
Accepting this data will not change anything for me in a positive way, so I do not accept it and furthermore, now I know what I have to do from here on out.
OK.