"You may not agree on the winning works nor on how they are judged, but you will almost always be in awe of the incredible works of art that are created by people from all over the world."
Ain't that the truth! I sort of love the conceit where they rank every entry, but it also turns me into a bit of a hater. I'm just a random internet lady whose opinion was sought out by not a single person, but I feel mad when certain works are ranked too high and others too low! How could they?!
For real though, I'm so tired of how same-y many of the entries are. It's not that they aren't well executed or beautiful - they are! But there're, like, 10 ideas here remixed 1000 times. I wish there was more variety and risk taking, though I suspect it's not well rewarded. I'd love to pick over the bottom half of the rankings - I bet there are some good ideas that just don't fit the rubric.
Still, my two favorites of these 10 ideas is "it's fall on the side of a mountain" and "whimsical lotus leaves for contrast", the latter having a particularly big year this year. Conversely I'm completely exhausted with "the forest, but if it was just made of green and brown stripes." They are so detailed and take so much work to make, but I don't need to see any more ever again. I am all full up for the rest of my life. I am happy to see fewer tidy little sand paths that lead to nowhere this year, so hopefully those will continue to fall out of favor.
In the interest in not being
just a hater, here are some ones I responded to in the top 300, bolded ones I liked quite a lot:
7, 11, 25 (best of the green-and-brown, redeemed by contrasting textures and lack of stripes), 28, 34, 44, 45,
59, 63,
65, 67, 81, 83, 84 (this one doesn't quite work for me, but it takes a big swing and I love to see it),
93, 97, 111,
122, 129, 165, 166, 170 (bold lack of plants here), 171, 172, 177, 183,
192, 240, 242, 249
