335 artists aim for Washington State Arts Commission roster

When Noah Grussgott, yet another proverbial struggling artist, found out that only two of five judges gave his work the thumbs-up, his reaction was not unexpected.

"I was upset," he says. "I did believe I had a chance. But art and rejection sort of go hand-in-hand. You have to have a strong skin."

Grussgott, 28, wasn't just trying for a best-in-show ribbon at a fair.

He was competing to be included on the Washington State Arts Commission's roster of artists eligible for public-art funding — about $2 million a year from the state.

If you are not on the roster, you can't apply to create art destined for that community-college lobby, or that National Guard center, or that space by the elevator in a state office building.

This year, 335 artists submitted applications to be on the state's roster, which is updated every two years. Only 68 of them, or 20 percent, made the cut — meaning that at least three of the five judges voted "yes."

The city of Seattle and King County 4Culture rely on rosters of artists for some of their public art, usually specific projects that, for example, are on a tight deadline. For most projects, they have open calls.

The funding is figured into public construction projects (1 percent of construction budgets for Seattle or King County projects, 0.5 percent for state projects).

Enough fish, thank you

Judging art is obviously very subjective.

Applicants who submitted a lot of fish art, for example, were out of luck this year.

"How many bronze fish do we need in this state? We're calling a moratorium," says Chris Bruce, director of Washington State University's Museum of Art, and one of the judges.

"I'd guess maybe a quarter of the people who applied had a fish sculpture, or fish tiles on the floor, or something like fish painting. We're looking for something a bit more creative. This is not just for a commemorative coin."

And then, says Bruce, there were the applicants who, "I shouldn't say they're out there in the woods, but they're people away from cultural centers, who have started making art, but with very little awareness about art or what contemporary society is all about."

Those applicants, he says, sometimes submitted "supertraditional and flowing sort of out of 18th-century France" kind of art.

That gets you off the roster, but quick.

There certainly isn't anything romantically traditional about Grussgott's art.

His work is currently on display in downtown Seattle at Western Avenue's Harbor Steps, as part of the West Edge Sculpture Exhibition.

One sculpture, called "Heavy House," is a Little Tikes playhouse, but cast in cement.

It's not exactly kid-friendly. As Grussgott explains, its gray, pockmarked surface gives it a "ghostlike appearance of a ruin."

Another consists of three play cubes stacked on top of one other, about 12-½ feet tall total, with material added "so you can't play inside of them."

Grussgott says the sculptures are supposed to "provoke thoughts about our past."

Sure, he says, his work "could be a little confrontational."

It turns out Grussgott's work was a bit too confrontational for the judges. Bruce says a concrete toy certainly "is one way of engaging people," but "it feels like a lot of it is about putting off the viewer, rather than bringing them in."

Reviewing the roster

Even an artist who got five out of five votes from state judges knows that next time he might be among the rejected ones.

There now are 236 artists on the roster, which the state began compiling more than two decades ago. It had grown to some 1,200 artists, but more than 1,000 were removed this year, mostly because they were inactive, but some because they no longer met the artistic criteria. The commission says it plans "to formalize" how often artists on the roster are reviewed.

Claude Zervas, 44, got a top score of 5 when the judges met in Olympia for three days in late July, looking at hundreds of digital images sent in by applicants.

He's also received plenty of rejection letters for grants, fellowships and other rosters, he says.

It's no big deal among his fellow artists, he says, this matter of getting a form letter telling you, "Sorry."

"It's more of a big deal if you get something," says Zervas.

In some of his artwork, Zervas uses his computer knowledge to make sculptures from LEDs and microcontrollers, forming luminous patterns of lights.

It might be cutting-edge art, but the use of computers was the subject of plenty of discussion among the judges, said judge Rock Hushka, senior curator at the Tacoma Art Museum.

He's leery of computer art: "Turning on the DVD player, rebooting the computer when things are not working right, dealing with the connections to speakers, will these parts be destroyed by daily use?

"And something that has a computer in it, that technology will be virtually obsolete in two or three years. How aware is the artist of that happening?"

Still, Zervas got top scores.

"It's their loss"

For some, it might be hard to figure out why one artist made the roster and another didn't.

There was the work of Amanda Knowles, of Shoreline, which got zero votes.

Her work is currently being exhibited at the Contemporary Print Center at Seattle's Davidson Galleries.

Cara Marie Forrler, director of the center, says about Knowles, "Her images are both visually beautiful and conceptually interesting."

In an e-mail, Knowles says that having never done public art before, she understood why the judges decided to keep her off the roster, "and I thoroughly respect the jurying process."

Still, it's never pleasant to be told your work isn't good enough. If you're an artist, you have to rationalize it.

Says Noah Grussgott, "I don't take it personally. I almost think it's their loss."

Erik Lacitis: 206-464-2237 or elacitis@seattletimes.com