[Kevin Roeckl]

I too would be interested in the answer to Thomasin's first question, whether digital or slide is taken more seriously in competitions at this level. I also have other questions about this competition (with the entry deadline looming in 3 weeks).

My PSOA question is this: I was fortunate enough to have received an Honorable Mention in the 2006 PSOA Members-Only competition. When I was notified of that honor last month, I contacted the Executive Director of PSOA, Christine Egnoski, and asked if it was "legal" for me to refer to my portrait as an "Award-winning portrait" followed by the name of the competition, on my website. She told me that only the First, Second, and Third place winners are considered awards, so it was not really appropriate for me to refer to an Honorable Mention that way.

I had been intending to enter that portrait in this years "Art of the Portrait" competition. As I'm sure most of you know, the rules state that only entries that have "never won an award in any previous art competition" are eligible. Since Ms. Egnoski told me that my Honorable Mention is not considered an award, can I enter it in the PSOA competition?

What if I entered it and the panel selecting the finalists felt that it was an illegal entry - would that reflect badly on my other two entries?

That brings me to another question: When entering the maximum number of portraits (3), are all 3 entries viewed by the jurors knowing they are all by the same artist, and if so, are the jurors influenced by the overall quality of that artist's work when considering one of their entries for a finalist?