That headline may sound like something out of Little House on the Prairie but what it really means is that Philadelphia artist Bill Walton has won the coveted Lois Fernley award, offered this year for the second time as part of the Arcadia University regional Works on Paper show.
The anonymously-donated award, ($5,000 in cash and $7,000 towards the publication of an artist’s monograph), is one of the largest grants to a single artist offered in the region. (The first Fernley recipient, Tristin Lowe, is completing work on his monograph, a kind of artist’s book with an essay by PAFA curator Alex Baker.)
Walton, 73, is a respected materials-fueled artist whose elegant draped cloth, stacked wood and other quiet, contemplative work was seen for years at Larry Becker Gallery. He was selected from among the 460 local artists who submitted entries to the 2004 Works on Paper exhibit. (Image is “Three Fold,” gesso and linen) See more images on the artist’s website, designed, by the way, by artblog’s own Anne Seidman.
Other awards given out this year in connection with the Arcadia show are
–Josh Shaddock (Mildred Bougher Award — $2,500 cash)
–Janet Towbin (Arcadia U purchased her piece)
–Melissa Ho and John Gibbons/Isobel Sollenberger, collaborators, (Director’s Prize–$200, shared)
–Alex Kanevsky (friends of Arcadia — $100)
–Bruce Pollock (friends of Arcadia — $100)
–Zoe Strauss (friends of Arcadia — $100)
The Works on Paper show continues through March 28.
