2024 Judges

The Fairhope festival is a juried event. Each year three judges are selected to evaluate the almost 200 participants in the show on a predefined set of criteria. They select winners by scoring each individual artist and the artists with the highest overall scores get the largest awards.

Amoreena Brewton is from Gulf Shores, Alabama. Her family has divided time between the Eastern Shore and the island shore for over a century and a half. Growing up with hippie parents who loved to travel and surf stoked her worldly and adventurous spirit. Although she rebelled against her art-minded parents and turned to sports for her imaginative outlet while young, she could not escape the call to be creative.

After receiving a BA from Coker University and then an MA from the University of South Alabama, Amoreena went to work with students at the North Carolina School of the Arts. She later returned home to teach at the newly built Gulf Shores High School and stayed to raise her two kids, Carter and Beckham.

Amoreena currently works at the Coastal Arts Center of Orange Beach, teaching classes, recruiting artists and assisting with the organization and promotion of events and conferences. The goal is to always craft a stellar learning experience for all ages of artists and guests on campus. Her enthusiasm is matched by her desire to help students learn to think creatively so they can be innovative in their artistic endeavors and in their livelihoods.

After 44 years as a public school teacher, college professor, school administrator, curriculum developer, writer, and educational consultant, Gail Cheney returned to her life-long love – ART. Since losing a daughter in 2008, painting and pottery has not only provided her with joy but also solace. Proceeds from much of her work support memorial funds for Amy at Twelve Gates Ministry in Clarksdale, MS and The Home of Grace and related charities on the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

For years Gail and her husband divided time between the Mississippi Gulf Coast and the Mississippi Delta, and her work often focused on the unique and common elements of these places. The “bayou” was a common thread, thus her decision to use the “Arts on the Bayou” name.

Although oils and pastels were her mediums of choice when she was an undergraduate student, she spent most of her rediscovering “art” time with acrylics, watercolors, mixed media, and pottery. She continues to explore mediums, styles, and subject matter, however, she now primarily does what she calls her “Transitions” work with pottery (hand built) and paintings with mixed media and alcohol inks.

She loves to deviate from these and create “hanging ceramic” pieces and shadowbox “fantasy” fish and animals. The possibilities of what to create are limitless and the support of fellow artists is amazing. Retirement gave her the time to spend with family and friends and to “be” an artist. When someone asks her what she does, she is happy to reply, “I am an artist.” Picasso said, “Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up.” Thanks to the support of the people in my life, I continue learning how to remain an artist.

Jason Tanner Young received a Master of Fine Arts degree in Sculpture from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 2011 and a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of Texas at Tyler in 2008. He is currently an Associate Professor of Art and director of the Sculpture concentration at the University of Montevallo. From 2017-2019 he served as the Gallery Director for the Department of Art. Young previously worked at Ohio University, where he taught courses in Sculpture + Expanded Practice as well as the Foundations Department. He also served as the Sculpture and Woodshop Technician; frequently conducting workshops and demonstrations training graduate and undergraduate students on woodworking and foundry techniques.

Young’s work addresses the relationship between object and memory. Often acting as a marker for experiences, objects offer a method by which to navigate by serving as internal landmarks. His hybridized forms describe personal truths, events, and behaviors. He shows his work extensively, and has been included in exhibitions at Lowe Mill Arts and Entertainment (Huntsville, AL), Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts (Gatlinburg, TN), The Sculpture Center (Cleveland, OH), Axis Gallery (Sacramento, CA),Weston Art Gallery (Cincinnati, OH), Manifest Gallery (Cincinnati, OH) the Young Sculptors Competition at Miami University (Miami, OH), the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts (Montgomery, AL), Visual Art Exchange (Raleigh, NC), Evansville Museum (Evansville, IN), and Rosalux Gallery (Minneapolis, MN) among many others.