Here’s an excit­ing oppor­tu­ni­ty, friends…

The Uni­ver­si­ty of Okla­homa School of Art and Art His­to­ry wants your entries for their Fish 2012 Inter­na­tion­al Art Com­pe­ti­tion. The theme is “art relat­ed to the cul­ture of fish­ing,” and what that means is wide open to your inter­pre­ta­tion. Pos­si­bil­i­ties include fish­ing as an eco­nom­ic lifestyle, the process of fish­ing, work and gen­der issues, con­ser­va­tion and pol­i­tics, envi­ron­men­tal habi­tats and sus­tain­abil­i­ty, fish­ing for sub­sis­tence, fish­eries col­lapse, fish qual­i­ty and safe­ty, and com­mu­ni­ty education.

What artis­tic medi­um can you enter? Cura­tor Cedar Marie explained, “Media can be any­thing; pho­tos, col­lage, film, poetry/spoken word, sculp­ture, fiber arts, ceram­ics, video, mixed media (this can be a com­bi­na­tion of mate­ri­als, any mate­ri­als that can make an inter­est­ing or com­pelling art­work, includ­ing boat parts, fish­ing gear debris used to make a sculp­ture, etc! No live or decom­pos­ing ani­mals though), per­for­mance footage, screen prints or lithos, etc. I once saw a wood sculp­ture of a fish that had a motion sen­sor, so when any­one walked by it, it spoke!”

Here are the basics:

Fish 2012 is open to all US/International artists 18 years old and older.

All media is accept­ed, with a $30 entry fee. (This cov­ers 3 images.)

The entry dead­line is Sep­tem­ber 1, 2012.

The exhib­it dates are Octo­ber 23 – Novem­ber 7, 2012.

Com­plete com­pe­ti­tion infor­ma­tion and entry details are here.

There’s pow­er­ful tal­ent among Hooked’s read­ers, and this is a won­der­ful oppor­tu­ni­ty to share your gifts and your per­spec­tive on this lifestyle. I so hope you con­sid­er enter­ing. Thanks for help­ing to spread the word far and wide among your com­mu­ni­ties. Now get to cre­at­ing, and good luck!

Ophe­lia the Octo­pus: cre­at­ed entire­ly of marine debris by Island Trails Net­work & Kodi­ak High School. (Pho­to by Mer­rill Burden)