2007 Federal Duck Stamp Contest

In 1934, Jay N. "Ding" Darling, an editorial cartoonist and conservationist, designed the first Federal Duck Stamp to raise money to purchase wetlands and waterfowl habitat. This is the 75th Anniversary of the Federal Duck Stamp program and the competition to select the 2008-2009 duck stamp. It was held on Sanibel Island, Florida, home of Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge. This was the first time the contest judging has been held outside of Washington, D.C.

There were 247 entries, which were whittled down quite severely to 39 on the first day in a process in which the judges voted the artwork "In" or "Out" by holding up printed cards. The artwork needed at least 3 of the 5 judges to vote "In" for it to continue to the 2nd round. A provision in the rules allowed each judge to bring back up to 5 works eliminated in the first round. A total of 10 were added to the 39 at the end of the first day's judging, which was ruthless.

I have to say that many of the submissions were obviously from artists who hadn't done much research. A quick look at the past winners would give a very good indication of the type and quality of artwork expected. An artist could easily judge themselves "In" or "Out" by that alone. Some of the work shown was clearly not up to standard and it was fun to judge myself which ones were going to be In or Out. In the time we were there (for the first 140) my selection was pretty accurate. We weren't able to stay for the entire session or return the next day for the final. It was a very interesting experience and we were lucky to be there at the right time.