Thoughts on Judging and Originality
Friday, November 21st, 2014There has been some controversy lately on QA concerning judging and originality, as some of this years top winners at IQF in Houston were pretty much direct copies of the work of other artists.   Nothing illegal there as the works were either in the public domain or used with permission. However this renders the new work NOT original as the decisions about subject, composition and sometimes color were already made by someone else.
My entry, “Jesse At The Lake” was inspired by a photo that I took myself and used artistic license to tweak the composition and the colors. All of the design decisions were original and my own. This prompted me to have another look at the judge’s sheets and all three judges marked the “Original in Design” space with a check mark for satisfactory. I feel it was very original and deserved a “+” mark. This is not a subjective decision that a judge can decide. Either it is original or it isn’t. I wonder how that space was marked on the entries in question. Entrants are required to disclose where the inspiration came from, and a simple check on that would have revealed that the works were recognizable copies and totally lacking in originality. As such they should not have been rewarded with an award in a category that requires originality.