When "Mercy" and "Justice" Collide . . .OR. . .Why It Really is "Lonely at the Top"

Is there some deep underlying part of our psyche as human beings that makes us want to be in charge, or at least makes us believe that we could do a better job than those (idiots, jerks, morons, fill in your own derogatory term here) who are in charge?

"I'll tell you this -- if I were President . . . if I were the Coach . . . if I owned this restaurant . . . if this were my airlines . . . .If you ask me -- I'd lock them all up and throw away the key . . . I'd paint it all blue and that would be the end of it . . . I'd send them all back where the belong . . . I'd make them be at home in bed by 9 o'clock . . . I'd charge them double and good enough for them!"

Sounds great. But the reality is a little more complex. Being in charge is harder than it really seems from your comfy chair. I was in the "boss" position for a good deal of my museum career and it has its appeal. But it was never as easy as others thought it was. And, all too often, other people would say "You know what you ought to do? I'll tell you what you should do . . . ." As if I had no idea what to do next. When I was the boss, that's when everyone else wanted to be in charge. But, being the boss also means being a "judge", making decisions about good and bad, right and wrong, evaluating other peoples work, other people's creations, and that's even more difficult.

When you have to serve as a judge of others, what once seemed distinctly black and white suddenly shows all these intriguing qualities of gray on a subtly shifting scale. Sometimes intuitive responses come easily and without "thin-slicing" issues we can actually make the right decision. But, even "Blink" author Malcolm Gladwell admits that sometimes the more you analyze and delve into issues or aspects of decision-making, the more complexity makes it all very difficult to find the right answer or approach.

Yesterday, I had the great pleasure and difficult challenge of serving as judge for the Cape Cod Art Association's new show "Interpretations of Light" -- running now through March 12. I shared the judging task with a photographer from Scituate and we were both a little late in showing up due to the sleet and snow and sloppy weather.

Serving as judge for an art show is similar in many ways to determining what artists and artwork I will carry in the Gallery. Bad art is generally easy to weed out. But deciding what is good art or the best of the lot is much more difficult. At the Gallery (where I am the boss, by the way), I can decide to meet with a particular artist and review her/his work, or not. On the other hand, the art association had called for entries in a kind of "open" process, that is not just limited to Association members. So, they received many more entries than could possibly be included in the show, based primarily on wall space. So, as judge, I had to actually decide which artwork would qualify to be in the show and which would not.

Unlike the Gallery, where if the artist is not appropriate for the Gallery or our audience and I have the liberty of saying thanks but no thanks, the CCAA has to put together a full show and so half or more of the entries must by default make the cut (or else they don't have a full show). As I said, bad art is bad art, no matter what I do or say. No matter how sincere the artist was in creating this thing, no matter what kind of frame you put on it, no matter what the subject or the medium, bad is bad. But what about mediocre art? Where do you draw the line between "good" and mediocre? And when you are the judge, you have to draw that line. The result seems a little abitrary: some "artist" celebrates that their art made the show while another person fumes or sobs or says "If I were in charge . . . !" And we had to make a judgement one by one as the works were presented to us by Art Association volunteers, presumably many of them were member artists who had entered works of their own in the show. So you don't even know if you may be insulting the very person who's carrying the work, if it's their own piece.

The challenge was to find the right balance. Show some "mercy" for the near-misses just at the imaginary "line" but also try to maintain a sense of "justice" about good art work deserves to be recognized as such. But, with 175 or so pieces to review and determine their merits to be entered into the show, a growing unease after looking at three or four works made the judging even more uncomfortable. There was a struggle, not really between me and the other judge, but more between justice and mercy. What if you said yes to something early in the viewing that might then eliminate the chances of a wonderful piece being shown later because there wouldn't be any more room in the show. Or, conversely, what if you said no to something early on and everything else was worse? It's not easy at the top!

After we had determined which of the pieces were in and which were out, we had the more difficult challenge of awarding first and second place (and honorable mention) by medium. Comparing pieces of really good art one against the other (admittedly, there were not large groups of really good art in most of the various media), is like -- what? I don't know -- maybe like asking who was the better "Thomas", Mr. Jefferson or Mr. Edison. Or, which sauce do you like better, hot fudge sauce or spaghetti sauce? There wasn't any category for "It depends."

Comparing one piece of good art against another piece of good art, gets very subjective and is not really that appropriate given the many different styles and subjects.

As I said, bad art is just that, bad art -- and there was quite a bit of that. But there was also a lot of good art and a few pieces of excellent art. I would recommend you to view the show at the Cape Cod Art Association and try to decide for yourself. It was actually both a pleasure and privilege to serve as the judge for the CCAA show, and I was happy to have been invited to serve in this way. Still, I am happy to be back in the Gallery today among the familiar works of the Gallery's own artists.