Illustrator’s Cup Winners

Is anyone surprised Santa Fe's artist community rallied for the second annual Illustrator's Cup and we had twice as many submissions as last year? The contest not only helps support the SFR's wider journalism mission, it's also a way for people to share and connect—actions that feel super important in this socially distanced reality of COVID-19. Our judges laughed and sighed and scratched their chins as they choose the winners to publish here. We send our sincere thanks to everyone who entered.

Winners in each of the three categories receive $50 credit card gift cards to spend anywhere, while second- and third-place winners are heading to Second Street Brewery for food and drink worth $25 and $10.

Watch for calls for entries for the next Illustrator's Cup next June, and start thinking about your contribution to the short fiction story and personal essay contest in October.

Political Cartoon Winner

Josh Watches the News

By Josh Anderson

"Living on the edge in my earlier years I've acquired a little PTSD and this piece is dedicated to how most news affects me."

Political Cartoon Second Place

Wash Your Hands

By Eliza Lutz

Eliza Lutz is the founder/owner of Matron Records & Design. Lutz was raised in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where she has been making art, recording music and touring nationally since she was 16. A self-taught musician, artist, graphic designer, illustrator and promoter, Lutz has focused much of her visual output illustrating album covers, show posters and band merchandise for local and national projects, including her own bands Future Scars, GRYGRDNS, As In We and Scissor Lift. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Lutz has been relieving stress by creating daily political cartoons in an effort to find some levity and process the daily influx of bad news.

Political Cartoon Third Place

Balloon Fiesta is Canceled

By Bette Yozell

Bette Yozell grew up on the north shore of Boston. She attended the Tyler School of Art in Rome, Italy, the Boston Museum School and has a BS in art education from Tufts University. While in Boston in the early 1970s, Yozell maintained a stained glass, painting and printmaking studio. In 1976, she moved to Copenhagen, Denmark, where she established a similar studio and taught in the Danish Adult Education system. She exhibited extensively in Europe during her seven years there. Her move back to the US was to Santa Fe, New Mexico. She taught first at the College of Santa Fe and then at Santa Fe Prep School, where she was chair of the Art Department and taught for 27 years. Retired from teaching in 2011, Yozell is now full time in her studio.

Wild Art Winner

Gato Montes

By Irene Hardwicke Olivieri

"I grew up on the Rio Grande River in south Texas and after living many places now I live in Santa Fe, just upriver from where I was born. When I'm not in my studio painting I'm out in the wilderness. I love learning about wild plants and animals, beetles and snakes. Gato Montes seems like a perfect home."

Wild Art Second Place

Penny Farthing Mujer and Hombre

By Sandy Winkelman

Sandy Winkelman grew up in Texas shooting BB guns at his neighbors' windows, swimming with his pet armadillo and building elaborate tree houses. Growing up as an only child, it was early on that Winkelman discovered his ability to create. He used to spend hours drawing everything he saw, but he was always drawn to the character of his subject matter and the possibility of their individual stories.

Wild Art Third Place

Garlic Series

By S.J. Shaffer

"Known as a professional contemporary Southwest illustrative painter, I was a trained as a commercial Illustrator and went onto work as a freelance illustrator throughout the City of Los Angeles, California. Now as a painter, I still do amazing Illustrations."

Portrait/Caricature Winner

Propeller Head

By Darlene Olivia McElroy

The richly textured mixed media paintings of Darlene Olivia McElroy reflect the vision of an artist whose involvement with man's primal origins, sins and religious conflicts has developed an imagery at once sensuously primitive and startlingly sophisticated. McElroy, born and raised in Southern California, is descended from an old New Mexico family of artists and storytellers. She has been deeply influenced by the summers she spent growing up on her family's ranch in Santa Fe, where the rich tapestry of Hispanic life filled the nights and brightly colored the days.

Portrait/Caricature Second Place

Prize Winner

By Rick E Allen

"I'm a watcher of our times—a Human looking at the follies of our species with a Vonnegut's eye, an ear full of Dylan as Bolero plays in the background."

Portrait/Caricature Third Place

Married Friends

By Bob Richardson

"I'm a Santa Fean for most of my life…and that's a pretty long time. I was in business and then had the good fortune to start painting full time. My interest is figurative work. It always was. I paint personalities. I can see people. That's how I describe it. While in high school, I started painting at The Art Student's League NYC. Did some studio classes at Bard College and studied with some good painters here in Santa Fe. I'm in good health and this COVID thing is a real bummer."