Now that the Online Competition winners have been announced, things are gearing up for The Artist's Magazine's Annual Art Competition!

The deadline for entries is May 1, and winners will appear in the December 2009 issue of The Artist's Magazine. (You can see the 2008 winners here.) The fabulous prizes include:

5 First Place Awards: $2,500 each
5 Second Place Awards: $1,250 each
5 Third Place Awards: $750 each
15 Honorable Mentions: $100 each

And the categories and judges are:

Portraits/Figures Juror: Nelson Shanks

Still Life/Floral Juror: Jane Jones

Landscape/Interior Juror: Susan Shatter

Abstract/Experimental Juror: Jimmy Wright

Animal/Wildlife Juror: David N. Kitler

Click here for all the in-depth info about how to enter.

If you watch any reality TV shows, you might feel as I do—that the word "competition" is used with much higher frequency and with a lot more animosity. But The Artist's Magazine's competitions are congenial altercations, and we highly encourage you to make friends! These folks are not allowed:

Toothpicks poke apples. Goldfish crackers fly. Water glasses topple over. Three luscious still-life shows have opened in Colorado and California with presentations that turn the time-honored genre upside-down. The artists bring humor, irony and mysterious narratives to the table.

In The Object Project, 15 painters were asked to incorporate the same five items (a moth, ball of string, bone, mirror and glass of water) into their tableaux to explore different visual interpretations. There’s everything from the spare style of Scott Fraser (above, The Fraser Family) to the intricate compositions of Robert Jackson (at right, Food Fight). The show is on view at the Museum of Outdoor Arts in Englewood through May 23.

Gallery 1261 in Denver presents an accompanying show of works by the same artists but without the object challenges. Beyond the Object Project runs through March 21.

You might not think of Palm Springs, Calif., as much of an art destination, but on a recent visit I discovered that the Palm Springs Art Museum is a secret treasure in the desert. Through May 9 it features a must-see Wayne Thiebaud retrospective complete with his signature images of bakery goods—trays of pies, cakes and donuts that serve up a tasty slice of Americana.

I am in love with Maira Kalman's blog at nytimes.com, where she tells stories of American democracy in half-calligraphy, half-painting form.

My last dispatch spotlighted the "demon" mustang at the Denver International Airport. Well, it turns out Denverites aren’t the only ones upset about large public-art animals. I've since learned that some folks in Sacramento are hoppin' mad about a red rabbit.

In October, sculptor Lawrence Argent was commissioned to create a 52-foot fiberglass hare diving into a stone suitcase for the California capital's new airport terminal. (The above image is a computer rendering.) A public outcry followed over the $800,000 price tag.

Argent says he understands why people in Sacramento are fuming when the state is in financial ruins and unemployment is high. But by county ordinance, a percentage of the construction cost of government buildings must be used for public art.

Nonetheless, critics say the bunny money should go for things like hiring more cops. And one local asks, "Why a rabbit?" There aren't rabbits in Sacramento, he grouses, but why not a sculpture about something else the city is famous for, say, "government overspending on pointless projects."

Argent says he chose the rabbit because it’s a creature that can add humor to a place where people are fraught with anxiety over flying, delays and security lines. For him, the sculpture is already a success. "At least people are thinking and art has entered their consciousness," he says. The philosophical Argent lived through public discourse when he created a giant bear for the Denver Convention Center. After it was installed, he says, the architect paid him the ultimate compliment: "You humanized the building."

The Sacramento Bee has leapt to Argent’s side, saying great public art costs money, and great public art makes great cities—think Chicago and New York. What’s your take on the money for the bunny?

Note: Bonnie Gangelhoff is the senior editor at Southwest Art, a sister publication of The Artist’s Magazine. This is the first in a series of a weekly dispatches on art issues out West.

A war is raging in Denver over a 32-foot-tall fiberglass blue mustang that greets visitors at the Denver International Airport. A local developer, Rachel Hultin, has mounted a campaign to get the eye-popping equine corralled and moved to another locale. Her anti-stallion Facebook group is rife with support from people who call the sculpture fiendish, heinous and evil. One woman even said the scary steed makes her afraid to board a plane.

The airport commissioned sculptor Luis Jimenez to create the piece as a symbol of the West and of Denver. But as one naysayer declares, that’s not the message the sculpture sends, "because of this thing, people think they are in hell, not Denver." Apparently, a main complaint is that the equine's glowing red eyes make it seem possessed by the devil. (One Denverite has dubbed it "Bluecifer.")

Meanwhile, the monumental mustang comes with some serious baggage. In 2006, Jimenez was killed when a piece of the horse fell on him in his New Mexico studio. Family members later finished the sculpture and it was installed in 2008. Since the city says public art can’t be moved for five years, the horse detractors may be the ones moving on, not the sculpture.

But the blue horse has its fans, who say art is supposed to stir up unbridled passions. And it could be that the renowned sculptor meant his icon of the West as a wry comment—we travel on red-eye flights rather than our trusty steeds. What do you think? Is the anti-stallion faction over-reacting, or do they have a point?

After a long weekend, I'm feeling a little sluggish today. Keetra Dean Dixon's type art makes me feel cheery, especially this piece:


I've been thinking of you for a while (54x12x6, layered wax)

I can't believe it's wax! Doesn't it look like a geode?

Found via HOW.