The Oakton Foundation holds bi-annual competitions for adults and high school students to award the best original painting or sketch that communicates a moral truth with excellence to a wide audience. Potential mediums are limited to oils, acrylics, pastels, water color, charcoal, pencils, or similar mediums. Entries will be judged on the basis of creativity, quality, and effectiveness in expressi
ng the contest theme. A longer rationale for the competition can be found here. Art today has become so individualized that ten people seeing the same piece would come away with ten different opinions about what it is communicating. Art promoted in Christian venues can lack creativity (e.g., slapping a verse on a picture of a lighthouse). We do not seek "Hallmark card" art, i.e. purely landscape scenes that may be lovely to view but do not communicate a deeper message. The tension is being able to communicate deep truths without being so obvious that the art lacks creativity, nor so obscure that most people cannot agree on its meaning. The intent of this competition is to identify emerging artists who share our vision of the arts and can produce works that communicate to both Christians and non-Christians:
Art is worship; artists are called to “co-create” with God. Artists should produce works that lift up “the good, the true and the beautiful” -- not meaning it has to only portray happy scenes, but if it portrays suffering or tragedy, it should portray it truthfully – with God we have hope and redemption, without Him we are lost. Good art tells the truth about the world, the human condition, and God (preferably without including words in the work). Your craft should be done with excellence. Culture would benefit from a wider range of art that advances God’s Kingdom principles and can be understood by both Christians and non-Christians.
