PUT YOUR APPLICATION IN NOW

You can own one of the above works by artist Rhinold Lamar Ponder by submitting an entry to the “Great Art Love-Away” per the rules below.

CONTEST RULES:

1. Your entry must consist of a picture and a statement, 50 words or less, showing where you will display the work and describing how you will show it love.  (The previous winner sent a picture of an empty living room wall right above a sofa. That contest was so close I had to bring in judges.)

2. You must submit your entry on Twitter or Facebook or the comment section of this blog post AND via e-mail to rhinold@ponderart.com   .  The submission must include the hashtag  #PonderArt or #PonderLove-Away.  The Facebook submission can be made on the Ponder Art Facebook page or as a COMMENT in the post of this contest on the Facebook Beyond Black and White Discussion Page. DO NOT post your entry as a separate post on Beyond Black And White. 

3. The post must be submitted within by 11:59pm on May 15, 2016.

4.  You can submit only one entry for each print or painting you are interested in.   For the second “Great Art Love-Away” we are offering the following works. 

a. Limited Edition Giclee Print entitled “Hero Clemente” (28 1/2″ x  22″)by Rhinold Ponder;

b. Limited Edition Giclee Print entitled “Ascension II” (33″ x 22″) by Rhinold Ponder;

c. ORIGINAL painting entitled “Hands Up,” (10″ x 8″)  by Rhinold Ponder;

5. There will be only one winner per household

6. We reserve the right to increase the number of winners if the love gets overwhelming.

It’s that simple.  If you want to know more about this event — the passion behind it,  why we are doing it —  please read the “Infrequently Asked Questions” below.

Why Infrequently Asked Questions? These are “Infrequently Asked Questions” because this is only the second art love-away in three years and these questions have not been asked frequently.   The answers will give you a deeper understanding of what PonderArt is all about, why we are having this event and the importance of the selected work(s) in this event.  Please feel free to comment.

What is the “PonderArt Great Art Love-Away”?

As part of my mission to beautify the world, one image, one space at a time my wife, Michele Tuck-Ponder, and I donate pieces of my art to our favorite non-profits for auction. Our goal is to raise $1 Million Dollars for our favorite charities.

Fortunately, many people are touched by the work, but as it becomes more expensive, it can also become more inaccessible to folks who appreciate and enjoy the work.  So, we decided to extend our mission by giving-away three pieces of art work to individuals who love and are excited about the work.  But we’re not really “giving” it away because we want something in return — we want to enjoy and bask in the inspiration and energy of interacting with folks who appreciate what we do.   No we are not giving the work away; we are loving it away.

And because of the insistence of my wife, our feelings about this are so strong that we will pay for the postage and shipping to get the work to the winner anywhere in the U.S.  Please believe me when I tell you that my wife is responsible for that part of the our “love in return for love offering.”  She convinced me with when she stridently said something about “making the love-away truly free and  being grateful from the blessings that come from giving.”

How Will We Judge The Winner?

We have no idea how many entries we will receive, but whether it’s 2 or 25 (more?), we already know the love we will receive will be tremendous.   I am always so energized and grateful when someone cares enough about a piece of my work or an image that they want to energize their own space with it.  No work touches everyone, but when someone is so excited and pumped and loving that they will pay to place my work in their home or office, it fulfills my daily mission to improve somebody’s life in some way.  So like the entire process, it will be subjective and it will be based on how the entries energize the judges.  Since, I already know most of the people I expect to apply and I know how hard it will be for me to chose alone, we have a panel judges including a previous winner of the inaugural contest.

How Do I Enter The PonderArt Great Art Love-Away?

See the easy  to enter instructions above.

What Should My Entry Say?

You didn’t really ask that infrequent question did you?  Be creative.  Be honest.  Be energizing.  Be real.  Write a verse.  Write a sentence.  Communicate.  Show love.

Why Are You Doing This Great Art Love-Away again? 

There are many little reasons that we are doing this event again and all of them add up to the fact that the act of giving out of love and passion multiplies the blessings for everyone involved.  Plus the first contest was so successful and the winners Steve Williams and Renee Gantt were such loving winners.

I absolutely love selling paintings and I am enjoying the steady increase in what people are willing to pay for my original work.  I remember the first time someone paid $3000 for a piece, I was actually not too pleased to see it go because I really liked the work a lot.  Fortunately, I had a common-sense wife who reminded me to be grateful for three things: 1) The joy on the person’s face when she bought the painting for someone she loved; 2) the financial reward for doing something I love, even more than I make serving some legal clients; and 3) the blessing that I can paint something else I like.  So I do enjoy the selling part, but what is really core to our mission is to get the work to where it will touch someone positively and I see both selling and giving fulfilling that mission.

The funny thing about sharing something with love and for love is that it increases the value of anything in multiples.  So as we bring smiles to faces and lift hearts, we have no doubt that giving away a few pieces of art from time to time will do nothing but create value, if for no reason but to create more space in my studio for the new paintings created as a result of all the positive energy shared by the participants in this monumental event.

Our goal is to eventually give away $100,000 worth of art to individuals as we grow.  In order to make that happen, I must create a lot of enjoyable, provocative and moving works or the value of the pieces better keep going up.

When Is Your Next Art Show Or Project? 

Stay tuned.  Soon we will expand our successful and provocative exhibit “The Rise and Fail of the N-Word.”  We plan to raise funds which will allow us to take the exhibit to Chicago, Los Angeles and New York.  I am also working on commissions for several clients including abstracted works on Derrick Rose, Gaby Douglas and Michael Jordan.

Is there a story behind the pieces you are loving away? 

Of course there is a story behind every piece I create.

“Ascension II” is a print of the second mixed media work of a triptych I did which represented humanity’s ability to rise above the suffering and harm one group of humans inflicted upon another.  The work was a mixed media piece with the figure representing humanity rising above slavery represented in abstract  by the cotton fields below. This work was probably the first time I used a table fork as a painting tool.

“Hero Clememte” is my recreation of a catch made by the great ballplayer and humanitarian Roberto Clemente.  Although, I was a Cubs and White Sox fan, I loved how Roberto Clemente carried himself and refused to be bullied by the media or the sports establishment.  I enjoy experimenting with the interplay between drip and splatter techniquge with solid objects such as the human body.  Often it creates the illusion of motion in the work.

“Hands Up” is one of many paintings I am doing to represent the killing of  unarmed, usually people of color, by police.  It is one of the projects to be showcased in my upcoming exhibitions of “The Rise and Fail of the N-Word.”

“Strange Fruit: High Tech Lynching or Suicide.”  The print of this work is not included in this contest but I wanted to mention why not.  Basically, my wife told me not to do it.  She believed that the disturbing visual would not attract a lover, that no one would really want to hang the print below in their home.  I beg to differ but I do listen to my wife sometimes.  So even though I think this is a conversation piece made even more timely by the death of Prince, and the two recent shows on Clarence Thomas and O.J. Simpson, I will keep my print to myself for now.  Maybe I’ll give it as a reward in the upcoming Kick Starter campaign for “The Rise and Fail of the N-Word” exhibit.