Neon Artist seeks Voters for a Chance to win $2,000

Jan. 9, 2011 - PRLog -- Meryl Pataky is a neon artist living and working in San Francisco.  Having achieved a BFA last year, she went on to have her first solo show just months later at San Francisco's a.Muse Gallery.  Her work seeks truth as it shows the elemental qualities and process of the medium--neon.  Her concepts involved the human condition and metaphysics.  

"Neon" is the process of heating glass tubing to bend it. Working with this medium offers great amounts of resistance and many half finished to finished works have seen their demise before illuminating.  Each of the gasses used to illuminate her work are elements, part of the noble gas family. Housed in glass tubing, they seem to breath and flow under the influence of electricity.  Since they simply exist and react because of and under the influence of their surroundings, they share a common metaphysical thread with humans and animals. By using neon, she hopes to shed “light” on the commonalities of the basic nature of the medium and our lives--a battle between resistance and growth.

The artist is currently entered in an international art contest through Artist Wanted, a collaborative project between several New York City artists and creative organizations working to build new lasting opportunities for emerging talent.  There are currently two different prizes to be won.  The Grand prize is a feature spot at Scope New York, a $10,000 cash grant, international publicity and travel expenses paid to see your work displayed in NYC.  

The second prize is the People's choice award.  This includes international publicity and a $2,000 cash grant for the winning artist.  The winner is determined by number of ratings or votes on their Artist Wanted profile page.  Voters are allowed to vote once every 24 hours until February.  

Meryl seeks to win a cash grant through this organization in order to build her own neon studio.  The artist currently creates her neon work at other neon sign-makers' studios.  While  very helpful, this arrangement is not ideal.  If Meryl achieves her goals of building a neon studio, she would like to open the space to workshops and lessons for other artists interested in adding neon to their work.  "It is incredibly frustrating as an artist to love your medium and not have the means to produce it," says Meryl.  "There are no neon collectives here in the Bay Area.  I would like to provide people like me a chance to learn about and create neon in a public space without having to make an enormous investment on a degree program or a neon studio."  

If her goal is realized, she would be able to continue to produce her artwork and share the love for neon with others.  In order to rate or vote Meryl's work to help her win this award, please visit http://www.artistswanted.org/portfolio.php?preview=true&a... to rate her work.  Each voter can re-visit and rate again every 24 hours.  The winners will be announced in February 2011.

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Originally from South Florida, Meryl Pataky is and artist living and working in San Francisco. She creates neon installations and jewelry. Please visit www.merylpataky.com for information work.