2021 Tournament of Art

 Last year Covid shut down the NCAA basketball tournament, so I couldn't have my annual art school tournament, but this year they found a way to hold most of the games, so the art goes on as well.  Same rules as before- a school that I have an art connection to (such as an exhibition) that is also in the NCAA basketball tournament this year is my ticket to this alternate dance.

My highest one this year is Illinois, which is a #1 seed in the midwest bracket.  I had a big show there in 1994 when the 2D section at SIU was invited to show work in the main gallery at Champaign-Urbana.  It was decided by the department that I would be showing my not quite finished Fourth of July piece on a large brick wall in the gallery.  Word had gotten around both schools.  (It was also decided by the department that I would be on the food committee for our school and not the hanging committee, as baking was highly regarded,) My solution was to mount them on foam core, then mount the big pieces of foam core on the wall using double sided sticky strips.  This proved advantageous when I arrived and discovered that my wall had outlet boxes. power strips, and other things that made attaching the large flat pieces of foam core difficult. Solution- cut out pieces of my original grid, and place then in other parts of my large format piece.  In the later MFA show, it was all on a massive wood construction and each day stayed put.

Meanwhile, I have Villanova (1997 exhibition of two saints as part of the Art & Religion exhibition), #5 out of the South, and like Illinois a highly respected team, though many have doubts since they have lost one of their best players.  How it will go for them we will see next week. 

After that I have a #8 seed from the east- LSU, where I had a group folio displayed in 2006.  Don't really know much about them, but websites think highly of them.  These 8-9 games are very hard to predict, can easily go either way.

Finally, an 11 seed from the midwest, Syracuse, where I had 3 pieces in an invitational show back in 2005.  Another program I know little about this year.

Games begin in a few days, assuming players remain Covid free.  If not, it could be a whole different tournament.