Jury Slides: Science vs. Pseudo-Science

An ongoing challenge for all of us is "crafting" sets of jury slides. I've been discussing this with a Psychiatrist friend of mine lately. Not that I'm in therapy or anything, but maybe that would be beneficial. Anyway I'm curious to know what factors you may take into consideration when putting together your perfect set of slides. Based on my most recent discussions/research with my friend on how the brain handles visual input I am putting together a standard set of 4 work images and 1 booth image and here is my most current approach: My 4 work images will have my most basic or elemental geometric shapes on either end. It is hoped that this will slow the eye down long enough to look at the center 2 images (any directional cant on the outside images will be oriented to the center). My center images will be more subtle with my most sensual and pleasantly curving work. The booth slide will be used to put the work into context for size and of course professional presentation. What are your thoughts? Color and size are also big considerations, but with my wood sculptural pieces color isn't such a big issue with me. Waddayouthink?

Hey Jay--

Here's my jury slide ritual: I always arrange and rearrange sets of images in a folder in iPhoto before submitting them. I look for color harmony without there being too much of one color---similar palettes, but with different colors emphasized in different paintings. I normally use two horizontal and two vertical pieces, with the vertical ones in the middle if the pieces will be viewed side-by-side. I mix up the colors so that if I have two predominantly red and two green, they alternate. The two images on the left (or at least the one to the far left) move the eye to the right, and vice versa. The subjects are all similar in scale within the picture plane, or they will be half-and-half of two different scales. The paintings are usually similar sizes to keep the scale of my strokes from looking unharmonious. They will all be of a very similar subject and look good together (from my subjective standpoint, of course). But hey, I don't really think about it all that much...

Who was that psychiatrist you mentioned?

Replies

Jim Parker May 23, 2011 at 10:16pm

I constantly experiment with jury slides. I tend to keep my 2d images consistent in color harmony, thematic content and orientation so that taken as a whole, they illustrate the 100 character statement. Inlike the iPhoto idea. I usually just view them as a group in Preview, or do a screen capture of a group in Zapp to compare one to the other. I usually end up with a couple of sets with minor variations. They evolve every year, along with my current threads in my work.
Sheila Evans May 14, 2011 at 10:26pm

Hey Jay--

Here's my jury slide ritual: I always arrange and rearrange sets of images in a folder in iPhoto before submitting them. I look for color harmony without there being too much of one color---similar palettes, but with different colors emphasized in different paintings. I normally use two horizontal and two vertical pieces, with the vertical ones in the middle if the pieces will be viewed side-by-side. I mix up the colors so that if I have two predominantly red and two green, they alternate. The two images on the left (or at least the one to the far left) move the eye to the right, and vice versa. The subjects are all similar in scale within the picture plane, or they will be half-and-half of two different scales. The paintings are usually similar sizes to keep the scale of my strokes from looking unharmonious. They will all be of a very similar subject and look good together (from my subjective standpoint, of course). But hey, I don't really think about it all that much...

Who was that psychiatrist you mentioned?
- Jay McDougall > Sheila Evans May 23, 2011 at 3:53pm
  
  Very interesting, I wouldn't have thought about the scale on the brush strokes. I was hoping more people would jump on this thread, maybe we're the only obsessive ones out here (yeah, right). The psych is a friend of mine here in Minnesota. It was interesting bouncing some of my thoughts off him. Good luck out there, hope to see you down the road - Jay

This reply was deleted.