Friends, I have news I did not expect to write: my painting Three Fishes is in first place.
The Moreno Valley Museum & ArtSpace is choosing an Artist-in-Residence, and part of the choice is a public vote. My painting is on the ballot, and as of this morning it leads — 236 votes, ahead of every other entry. Voting closes Thursday, October 30 at 9 AM, and the lead is small. I need your help to hold it.
What this residency would mean
The Artist-in-Residence gets gallery wall space and a studio at the museum, starting mid-November. Moreno Valley is twenty minutes from my studio in Riverside. For a painter, a museum home in your own community is not a small thing. It means my work hangs where my neighbors can stand in front of it. It means schoolchildren see original paintings, not prints. It means a living artist, working today, gets a room in the Inland Empire to share what he makes.
I have painted for more than twenty-five years. I have held ten solo exhibitions. But this one would be different — this one would be chosen, in part, by the public. By you.
The painting: Three Fishes
Three Fishes is a 48 by 48 inch oil painting on wood panel, painted this year. Three fish move through deep blue water — a symbol I return to again and again. Fish mean life, abundance, and moving forward together. In my work, water is the world we all swim in, and the fish are us: each one different, each one carried by the same current.
It is one of my largest and strongest paintings, and it is the piece I chose to represent me in this vote. If it wins, it will hang at the museum where everyone who voted can come and stand in front of the real thing — layers of oil paint, texture you can see up close, color that changes with the light. No photograph does it justice.
How to vote — free, a few seconds
Voting costs nothing and takes less than a minute:
1. Go to the museum's Artist-in-Residence page: morenovalleymuseum.com/artist-in-residence 2. Scroll down to the Public Vote section. 3. Find "Three Fishes" by Sam Ayad and tap the VOTE button on the painting.
You can vote once per artwork every 24 hours — so if you voted yesterday, you can vote again today, and once more tomorrow before the 9 AM close. Every single vote matters in a race this close.
Here is the link again: Vote for Three Fishes
Why I am asking
Artists are not supposed to ask. We are supposed to paint quietly and hope. But I have learned something in twenty-five years: art lives when people stand behind it. A vote is a small act, but it says — this work belongs in our museum, this artist belongs in our community.
I am a living artist, painting now in Riverside, California. Not a name in a history book — a man in a studio, working today, who will be there at the museum to talk with you about the paintings. That is what your vote supports.
Voting closes Thursday, October 30 at 9 AM. Please vote today, and share the link with one friend who loves art. From my heart — thank you.
Vote here: morenovalleymuseum.com/artist-in-residence — and if a painting of mine belongs on your own wall, write to me at [email protected] and I will answer you myself.