As I continue to unpack from C4, unloading some of the Stablemates today, I was reminded that I wanted to go deeper into talking about my past with live show "fun classes". My most recent achievement of the G2 Stock Horse conga's 3rd place is something I'm very proud of, but it's also really unusual for me to put that much effort into a class.
A look at my entry from two different perspectives, photos courtesy of my friend Jen and a lovely gal named Samantha who took many awesome photos during the show! I did not have time to take my own pictures.
Even something with this amount of effort (cutting paper and taping it to the shelves and the parts of the write-up, actually doing a write-up) is not something I tend to do for shows anymore. In this case, the class was named "Go Big or Go Home", thus I felt justified in putting in more effort, and also confident that my efforts would be taken into account when the class was judged.
In order to fully understand my perspective, we need to go back to a time 10 years ago when I put in hours of work on a project for a class that I ultimately felt was not judged fairly, and for a lack of a better phrase, it really crushed my spirit in terms of participating in fun classes until this latest one.
In May (?) of 2011, I attended a live show that included two fun classes I was very intrigued by. (I believe it was May, only because I also attended my BF & friends' senior prom that night- my mom was at the show to take my models home while I went straight to my BFF's to get ready.) The classes were something like "Stable Mascot" and "Diorama". I put a lot of effort into both, and while that paid off for the diorama (I think I won the class?) my Mascot entry did not place very highly at all (6th) and I took it incredibly personally after the amount of investment I'd put into it.
I was so excited about the classes that I can recall starting to work on the entries several months prior. I was especially proud of the display I had built for my mascot class, because it turned out quite close to how I'd imagined, and that's never something I've been very good at. The display featured my official "mascot" at the time, along her entourage, all of whom were models I had painted (though since I was in high school when they were painted- a few years prior to the show -they were not super high in artistic quality). I wrote up about a page or so explaining the origin of the models, why they related to my stable, and even how my stable name came to be. I was quite confident when I saw the rest of the class, as the only other entry with anything other than minimal effort (which is normal and totally fine for fun classes) was a portrait of someone's pet bull- and I would have totally been fine with getting second to that, I think they included an explanation as well.
However, I was to be disappointed in the result of the class. Not only was it not judged by an actual hobbyist (I think it was someone's husband? That's not unusual for fun classes either, but it wasn't something announced ahead of time and thus I was not expecting to be judged by someone who was not a part of the hobby), I also don't think this person was told to include the level of effort in their criteria for picking the winners. (Again, I don't think this usually comes into play when it comes to most fun classes, unless the class is geared towards putting more effort in, but when I judge fun classes I do make a point to acknowledge those who showed a lot of creative effort.)
I can't recall what else had transpired that day, maybe I'd been disappointed in some other placings and this was the last straw, but for some reason being picked over and not getting the credit and recognition for the work I'd put in sent me into a huge bout of tears! Thank heavens my mom was there because I don't know that anyone else would have really understood why I was suddenly crying my eyes out. In fact, I doubt most people realized that was the reason, maybe they just thought I'd received some bad news. It really wasn't something I looked back on fondly, especially since I was 20 at the time and it would have been super embarrassing to admit I actually cried over a fun class. But, as with everything else in life, things are always more complicated than they seem.
Another angle to it that I never thought about until recently, was that that semester was the first after I'd transferred home from a 4-year college to attend community college, during which I experienced a massive level of burnout academically. So, I was probably also devastated because other than spending time with my BF and friends, those hobby projects were a bright light at a tough time in my life and I'd gotten very attached to them.
I recall really jumping into the hobby starting in 2011, with more focus on it than I'd had in junior high and high school. Due to other interests and commitments, I went to a few shows each year, but during that time of my life, I really wasn't super involved in the hobby beyond that. There were also fewer options for engaging in the hobby online at that point, pretty much my only form of communication with my hobby friends was the Region 10 NAMHSA Yahoo Group. 2009 & 2010 I was essentially absent from the hobby, outside of going to NEMHC & the china show in the summers, as I finished my senior year of high school and went off to college for a year and a half. So, throwing myself into the hobby following all of that makes sense.
To come full circle, I'm really happy with feeling like I could put more effort into this newest class, since I'd basically sworn off of anything other than low effort for fun classes for years. It was nice to use my creativity in that same way again without thinking "what's the point if it's not going to factor into the judging?" I'm not really sure what my overall message or advice would be...perhaps to judges, even if a class is a "fun class", please try to honor the creative effort folks have put in- I know it's for fun, but you never know who it might have a significant meaning to. And to those creating the projects! It's totally awesome to put a lot of time and effort into projects that make you happy, and if you don't do as well as you hoped, you should still be super proud of your work! I still have my mascot project somewhere in a box I think, but for a long time I felt bitter about it. Maybe someday when I have more space, I'll use that to display those older customs again (I still have most of them!)
For those who read my wall of text, here's a look at the finished product of the "mascot" fun class! The main mascot is the metallic pink ASB in the top middle. All of the nametags (slips of white paper) are outlined in fancy black sparkle paper.
And below are some pictures of the creative process! I'm glad I saved these and didn't delete them. All of the "stage" pieces were wrapped individually and most of them are not glued to the base.
Thank you all for reading! Unfortunately, I don't seem to have the file anymore for the actual description I'd printed out for the entry, or I'd share that also.
Just for fun, here's the other entry from the same show- Diorama! I recreated our regional championship show! (This was after it was RXR and before it was TRXC) How many fun details can you spot?
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