The annual Putnam County Adult Visual Arts Exhibition organized by the Greencastle Arts Council in collaboration with the Putnam County Museum, culminates with announcement of the year’s award winners. With the assistance of an Indiana Arts Commission grant, award funds in 2022 totaled over $1,000. In addition to first- and second-place and a People’s Choice award, voted on by the audience, an annual Museum Purchase Prize allows PCM to add a new work each year to its permanent collection.
First Prize, including a check for $350, was awarded to “niila Myaamia (I am Miami),” a large, three-panel oil painting by Holly Buchanan of Rockville. A member of the Miami nation of Indiana and a recent graduate of DePauw University, Buchanan’s paintings explore the artist’s identity as a mixed Myaamia woman, drawing on her personal history, lineage, and experience stories. “I investigate the complexities of the contemporary state of the Indiana Miami, who hold strong generational awareness of their heritage.” Her creative interests include photography as well as painting, pursuit of which she plans to continue while completing a graduate degree in art history.
The second prize of $250 was awarded to “Cowgirl Dreams,” a black and white photograph by Andrea Mustaine. The photographer has lived in the Greencastle area for nearly 10 years but had not previously considered entering her work in the County Visual Arts Exhibit. When the awards were announced, Mustaine confided her genuine surprise and delight at learning her work had won a prize. “I have always enjoyed drawing, chalk art and photography and hope to do more with it in the future,” she added.
The Purchase Prize, presented by PCM director Lisa Mock, was awarded to Matt Rees for his hand-colored woodblock print “Carolina Wrens.” Rural Putnam County continually feeds this artist’s appreciation and wonder for the natural world, whose interpretations of ecosystems and the creatures inhabiting them lean toward the folk art tradition. As he gets older, Rees said he finds this rudimentary style more compelling, and one of his pieces has fittingly now found its way into the collection of the Putnam County Museum.
After audience ballots were tallied at the close of the show, the 2022 People’s Choice Award went to Braedon Payne for his acrylic painting on canvas “Untouched.” Payne, a 22-year-old artist from Cloverdale, Indiana, specializes in wildlife portraiture. In his opinion, the value of art lies in its potential to help share a point of view with others. “In my experience, we are so occupied looking out for ourselves that we rarely find the time to think about the wellbeing of animals,” the artist observed. “The wildlife depicted in my art is intended to help the viewers feel less disconnected from the natural world and to think about whether we are doing everything we can to respect their quality of life as much as we value our own.”
This year’s exhibit, co-chaired by GAC board members Lavinia Hale and Lisa Cooper, explored a diversity of
creative mediums and included more than 100 submissions — all from artists who have lived, worked, studied
or were born in Putnam County. The show was reviewed by guest adjudicator Cassandra Cook, director of the Arts Illiana Gallery in Terre Haute and adjunct professor of studio art at Indiana State University. Cook was present for the awards presentation at PCM, along with IAC’s Region 6 director Sherri Wright from Arts Illiana in Terre Haute.
The activities were made possible in part by Arts Illiana and the Indiana Arts Commission, which receives support from the State of Indiana and the National Endowment for the Arts.