No Borders Art Competition – Analog Artist Digital World

No Borders Art Competition had it’s 4 Year Anniversary at Iron Cow (2438A East Robinson St, Orlando, Florida 32803. Located in the Milk District a free cocktail was available with any purchase from the menu.Louis Rivera who founded No Borders asked if I would come in and act as one of the judges for this historic Rematch. When Pam and I arrived I immediately found a spot close to the DJ Dolo with a view of the stage and I started sketching. The music pumped loud the entire night keeping the crowd pumped for each competition.

This event brought together 6 artists from the first 4 shows to celebrate our 4 year anniversary. They competed on our 4ft x 4ft canvases for 30 minutes. The artists competing were:

Earl Funk
Timmy Dub
Phelo
Smet
Ken Deft
Frost

Contestant battled for $50 worth of paint supplies on a 4ft by 4ft sleek canvas for 30 minutes. Artists were each given one black marker and a choice of one color
to create on a smooth canvas. The purpose was to out create their
opponent, keep it looking neat, and win over the judges as well as the
crowd in a short period of time.

The rules were:

Only a black marker could be used and the artists choice of one other
color. Contestants were judged by the time they took, overall
balance, cleanliness, originality and creativity.

I was there to help judge just one round. The competitors were Frost against Deft. Frost chose a Green Marker and created a post nuclear ooze. Deft who also created the No Borders logo chose red for his color and he was roasting his competitor. He drew a graffiti artist who ignited his spray paint and lit his competitor on fire. In researching the artists I found that many were tattoo artists. In Orlando most of the best draftsmen work as tattoo artists. In this round Deft was the winner.

We stayed to watch a second competition as Phelo faced off against Deft. Phelo created a canvas that seemed to have been burned at the edges with a scene themed around still smoking. Smet did a graffiti version of his name which seemed a boring solution. I love the energy of these artist competitions.

I went to The Geek Easy (114 S Semoran Blvd, Ste 6, Winter Park,Fl) to see what No Borders Art Competition was all about. It is a great concept involving two artists competing head to head with 30 minutes to complete a canvas.

No Borders Art Competition began in April 2015 with two competitions
every 3 months. One competition was on a 4ft x 4ft canvas with a 30
minute time limit the other was on a 6ft x 6ft canvas for 1hour. Each artist was equipped with enough tools to complete their pieces while
also challenging their creativeness.

The 6ft x 6ft canvas might was a bit of a challenge
for some artists so “The Tournament” was created. It consisted of 8
artists on the 4ft x 4ft canvases that have never competed at our show
before. The winners of that show would then compete against the previous 4
winners on the 4ft x 4ft canvases.

The original rules applied:

4 Black markers with different tips

One color marker

4ft x 4ft Smooth White Canvas

Artists were judged on 5 categories:

1. Creativity and Originality

2. Neatness

3. Time Management

4. Use of Color Marker

5. Overall Balance

The Crowd got to pick The Peoples Champ before the judges ruling is
announced.

The judges were: Chris Rodriguez, Stazo Oner, and Josue Ortiz. Josue was the person who got me interested in the event.

The host for the night was Ozones own, Madd Illz, The house DJ spinning 90’s hip hop was Cubby (Chris Mendez) and Dean Rod Uno Rodriguez.

The competition was off to a late start. I sketched the stage waiting for the competitors to take the stage. The first competitors were, Nice Darrell and Jessica Butler. Nice’s canvas was more complex and dream like, being hard to read from a distance in certain passages. Jessica’s canvas was more straight forward with a blue whale. My vote was for her piece which had more appeal. I didn’t stay to sketch the other 6 competitors. I just wanted to get a flavor for the festivities. It is certainly an event I would love to sketch again.