By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
The Black Swamp Arts Festival has belatedly announced the winners of the juried art show at the 2026 Black Swamp Arts Festival, which was presented Sept. 11-13.
The award winners are:
- Best 2-D: Erika Pickrell, printmaking and drawing from Columbus
- Best 3-D: Josiah Eidmann, jewelry from Kenosha, Wisconsin.
- Judges’ Award: Linda Chamberlain, painting from Bay City, Michigan.
- Sustainability Award: Rachel McFarlane David, Wood from Reynoldsburg, Ohio
- Emerging Artist Award:Matt Gaberell, painting from Columbus.
- Honorable Mentions: Kwame Boama Mensa-Aborampa, painting; (Steven Daniel, photography and digital art, and Leif Johansen, mixed media).
Interviewed on the Friday of the festival (9-11-2026), the jurors noted that the art honored was displayed with care, amplifying the craftsmanship of the work, and offering insight into the process of creation.
“We appreciated those added little details,” said Barbara Bergstrom.
Bergstrom, who chairs the art education department in the BGSU School of Art, joined local potter Mary Dennis, and BGHS art teacher Nikki Myers on the panel of jurors. They selected the work in the juried art show, and then were back Friday evening to judge the show and award the nine awards.
Erika Pickrell, the Best 2-D Award winner, for example, includes glasses with stubs of pencils in her booth decor.
Myers said her reaction to first seeing her booth was: “Wow, I wouldn’t have thought that was colored pencil.” The pieces whether large or small, feature “intricate details and original designs.”
Pickrell studied drawing and painting at OSU, but when she graduated she didn’t have confidence in her paintings. So for 17 years she worked outside of art.
“I had an opportunity to take a few years to see if this could be sustainable path,” she said. “It came to the point that if I didn’t give this a shot I would always regret it.”
Three years later the path is leading her where she wants to go. Not that it was easy.
During the time away from art, she said, “I forgot how to paint .”
When she went back to painting, she could realize the design she wanted and the colors. “But I couldn’t get the details,” she said.
“I was getting very frustrated and then I realized I had this package of colored pencils I’d been carrying around with me for a couple decades. I opened them up and started mimicking my paintings with the colored pencils,” Pickrell said. ’It gave me the control I was missing with the paint but I also got the colors that I enjoyed with painting.”
Something of a home body, Pickrell sees her work as world building, creating imaginary landscapes.“These are a way of expanding my world.”
Best 3-D award winner Eidmann also started drawing and painting. As he marketed his paintings in galleries, he worked in his father’s shop making cabinetry.
He started experimenting crafting small pieces after seeing a wood worker inlaying bowls with emeralds.
Once Eidmann started making the wooden jewelry that became his focus. He took to the art fair market, which provided his living. When the pandemic closed down the circuit, he started selling jewelry online. “So I don’t really have to l put all my eggs in one basket anymore.”
The judges praised his work for the intricate details. Wood “is a unique medium for jewelry,” Bergstrom said.
Myers noted that he uses pieces wood for placards and to stage his pieces. “Everything just comes together in cohesive and an interesting display.”
Eidmann still considers going back and employing painting techniques to future work.
Dennis said she was struck by Judge’s Award winner Chamberlain’s use of tone. They colors of the paintings are subdued and projected a sense of melancholy. Yet the colors are “pretty.”
Chamberlain said she draws her inspiration for the color scheme and architecture in her work from her solo travels in Europe.
And she uses tape with designs around the cradled wooden frames as an added element.
While Chamberlain displayed several larger works, she also had a number small pieces, including magnets.
These lower priced pieces clearly drove business. While being interviewed, Chamberlain was constantly interrupted by customers.
One woman was a repeat customer. She was buying two magnetic pieces. She said she places them on shelving at her home and her grandchildren love moving them around. “They think they’re fabulous.”
No best of show was awarded this year when the artist originally selected was disqualified. The festival spokesperson Carmen Cano wrote in response to a BG Independent query about the awards that after the decision regarding the Best of Show awards, jurors would have had to reconsider all exhibitors for awards without viewing their booths
“The Visual Arts Committee discussed the situation and jurors would have to judge the artists without the ability to review the artists’ bodies of work again which could result in adjusting multiple awards. They felt it wouldn’t be fair to make these decisions based just on the few images each submitted with their initial application into the Juried Art Show and their memory of what they saw over the weekend.”
