West of Ireland's (WOI) Surfboard Design competition announced the winner of their event, JamesB Allen. SurfWatch caught up with JamesB shortly after the announcement of his winning design.
SurfWatch: How does it feel to have won the WOI Surfboard Art Contest?
JamesB Allen: It's always nice to win but in this case, I would have prefered a judges panel instead of a popular vote. But I am happy about winning, and I plan to auction off the prize surfboard and donate the auction money to Project Children.
SW: How did you determine the idea for your board?
JA: The bottom of the board incorporates a child's face (for Project Children) and the colors of the Irish Flag. The deck is red and is intended to represent the struggle and plight of these children who really are innocent victims.
SW: Your design is awesome. Can you tell us how you created it?
JA: You mean you want me to give away trade secrets (laughs). I use Adobe Photoshop. I think alot of people who design in Second Life (SL) are familiar with Photoshop. I used layers of colors and paint brush smears and, of course, a template for the surfboard which helps guide me so that the patterns fall into place when you bring your art back to SL from Photoshop.
SW: Do you have any comment about having to remove the Project Children piece from the design (editors note: see WOI Announces Charity Change posted 3/24/10)?
JA: I was surprised and disappointed because I told many of my voters about Project Children, and I had planned to do the auction. So I'm just a little dissapointed that things are in limbo now
SW: What will become of the board now other than the beach at Bundoran?
JA: I believe it will be used for their loaner boards at Bundoran Reef.
SW: What was it like for you during the contest?
JA: This was the first time I have entered a contest like this. This was more about how many people you can beg to come vote for your board. And I really was against doing that at first. I really told myself I was just going to let the people judge the art. But a few days after the boards were set up for voting, I went to see how it was going, and I was a little shocked and upset to see 4 of the 5 boards with fewer then 3 votes. And one board with, like, 30 votes. I was like, what the (*&&^ is going on here! It became quite obvious that this was not an art competition
SW: When was your most anxious moment?
JA: Kantbe (Thursday) did a great job and the 5 final boards selected were all very nice designs. But some days, SL is laggy and the sim was a little sluggish at times. Anxious moments -- I guess the day before the talley. I had about 5 people there trying to vote and the voting script wasn't accepting votes. I ended up contacting Kantbe and sending her photos and names of those who could not vote. I know SL has issues, and I felt bad about having to contact Kantbe about the script not accepting votes. SL gets laggy and sometimes things don't work the way we expect them to work. Kantbe ended up gathering up the votes and resetting the script so that all 5 boards showed 1 vote. Anyway, it was just a little SL glitch. Those things happen.
SW: What suggestions, if any, do you have for future contests?
JA: For a contest like this, I think a panel of judges is more than enough. I know a panel selected the final 5 designs and that was good. Also, maybe having the artists explain what their work means. Sometimes art can be misinterpreted or its meaning is missed.
SW: Do are your future plans for your art?
JA: I am part owner of Sands of Time Dance Club, Venetian Beach, so I spend most of my SL time working on small projects there. That keeps me very busy. I would love to do some custom boards for people if they don't mind waiting, I don't always have time to do SL stuff.
SW: We would like to thank you for this interview, JamesB.
JA: No, (laughs), thank you. I know you guys work hard, and I totally appreciate your hard work. SL is so time consuming and we all have Real Life (RL) to deal with, so thanks you guys for all the work you do!
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2 comments:
Great interview!
I would like to make sure one thing is clear, though. I logged all of the votes for the boards before I reset the voting script, and combined those with all of the new votes collected. I then went through and eliminated all of the duplicate votes before determining the winner. I contacted each of the individuals JamesB knew about and let each of the artwork competitors know about the problem as well.
Also, I think the Project Children issue will be resolved very soon and another children oriented charity will take it's place. Keep your eyes and ears open for an update.
- Kantbe
I was honored to serve on the initial judges panel and would like to thank Kantbe for the work she did as well as all the contestants. All the designs were great and it was a pleasure getting to see them. Thank you also to WOI for giving me the chance to participate initially. Congratulations James B on a job well done.
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