Invitation and Theme – Summer 2025:  Encounters

Life, art, and people are shaped by encounters—with other people, places, events, artworks, books, subjects, media, techniques, forms of expression, themes, ways of doing, ways of thinking, ideas, emotions, problems, crises, losses, surprises, and discoveries.

David Friedrich, Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog, oil on canvas, 38.5 x 29.1 in. (98 x 74 cm), c. 1817, Kunsthalle, Hamburg (photo: Wikimedia Commons).

Some encounters are harmonious and affirming, others agonistic and unsettling. Either way, they can be transformative, lead to growth, bring new directions in art and in life, provide fresh perspectives, and cast new light.

Encounters can be the result of chance, be forced upon us, or be actively sought. They may even become part of a creative modus operandi. Encounters might involve collaboration, experimentation, challenge, and even struggle—they always demand a response, whether acceptance or avoidance. They may lead to a constructive dialogue or to an iconoclastic negation.

We look forward to seeing your work related to this theme.

Paul Gauguin, Bonjour Monsieur Gauguin, oil on canvas, 36.6 x 29.1 in. (93 x 74 cm), 1889, National Gallery, Prague (photo: Wikimedia Commons).

Arnold Böcklin, Isle of the Dead, oil on canvas, 43.6 x 61.5 in. (110.9 x 156.4 cm), May 1880, Kunstmuseum, Basel (photo: Wikimedia Commons).

Deadline: 1 March 2025.

Guidelines for UMVA Members’ Showcase:

We invite MAJ member artists to participate in the Showcase (become a UMVA member).

• For the In Times Like These issue, submit up to four JPEG or png images (NO TIFF files), approximately 2500 pixels on longest side, resolution 72dpi.
• Label each image file as follows: your last name_Number of Image_Title (with no spaces in the title). Please DO NOT put whole caption/credit in image file label, see image list/caption format below (if you are submitting for a group put your own last name in first).
• Include a numbered image list at the end of your statement or brief essay (600 words or less) in Word doc. format, NOT a PDF.
• Image list/caption format: create a list that is numbered to match the number in your image file label that includes the following in this order: Artist’s Name, Title of Work, medium, size (example: 9 x 12 in.), date (optional), photo credit (example: photo: Ansel Adams) if not included we assume it is courtesy of the artist. Example: Unknown Artist, Untitled, oil on canvas, 9 x 12 in., 2000 (photo: Ansel Adams).
• Label your document file names: Last Name_Title.
• Please wait until all of your material is compiled to submit.

Put “In These Times” in the subject line and submit by email to umvalistings@gmail.com by the 1 March 2025 deadline. MAJ will limit the “Members’ Showcase” section to UMVA members who have not been published in the past year.

Do not send preformatted visual essays. Our editors will lay out text and images submitted using the guidelines above.

It is the MAJ’s policy to request and then publish image credits. We will not publish images the submitter does not have the right to publish. However, it is to be assumed that any uncredited or unlabeled images are the author’s/submitter’s own images. By submitting to the MAJ, you are acknowledging respect for these policies.