Grand Prize Winner

Friday started of awful and then turned into an amazing night. Thursday and Friday at school I received negative comments from three different teachers. I quote "Kelley, you just are not technically there yet" (remember that for later on in this post). I was feeling like rotten taco beef so I left school and took a drive to Hadley to pick up some cat food for Arnold. The ride relieved some stress. I drove back to school, checked out equipment at 3:00, left school around 3:40 and got to my mother's by 5:30 to leave for the Fairfield gallery that my photo of Bess was selected for. We arrived at the gallery around 6:30, I walked in, met up with Lucy who had been there 15 minutes before us and she walked me to my print which had . . . . . drum roll please . . . the grand prize winner sticker next to it! At first I thought "good one Lucy. Way to bring in a gold sticker and write grand prize winner on it." But the truth is, I was indeed the grand prize winner. It felt amazing. My print looked great! Michael and my prints both stood out from everyone elses. Oh . . . Michael Esposito submitted and was chosen as well. His photo was amazing as well and I later found out that the judges were very impressed by both of them.
I was introduced to the head of the museum who introduced me to two of the judges, Howard Bernstein and Stephen Wilkes. I asked them why they chose my photo (remember the quote from my teacher now) and they said because it was the most techinically correct and stood out from the rest! The grand prize is to have my portfolio judged by Stephen Wilkes which is actually really awesome! I have to call him and schedule a time. I am really looking forward to it. I will be in the Fairfield paper this Wednesday. I am going to scan the article and post it on my blog, unless I look like an overweight calf. What a day!