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Call for Artists
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IMPORTANT DATES
Call Opens: March 25, 2026 Digital Submission Deadline: May 15, 2026 (you may send images as soon as the artwork is completed. Please do not wait until the last minute to submit digital images.). All images must be hi-res so jurors have the ability to zoom in should they choose). Acceptance Notification Sent via Email: May 17, 2026 Physical Artwork Drop-off/Arrival: Must be received by the June 10, 2026 (if your artwork is not at the Quinlan by this date, you will not have the opportunity to exhibit it event if you received an acceptance email). VIP Pre-Opening Reception & Awards: Thursday June 18, 2026 Public Opening Reception: Friday, June 19, 2026 Exhibition Dates: June 18 - August 15, 2026 |
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I Am Multicolored: The Human Connection invites artists from across the United States to respond to the wisdom and humanity of artists, author and civil-rights advocate Lenn Redman (1912-1987). His illustrated poem What Am I? asks us to look beyond the appearance, to see our differences and our shared humanity with curiosity, humor, and compassion.
In a time when global conversations are calling attention to the power of human connection, this exhibit asks:
- How can art help us understand one another, and ourselves
Presented in partnership by the Quinlan Visual Arts Center (Gainesville, GA), the University of North Georgia (UNG), and the Redman Family Foundation, the exhibition will pair with works by Lenn Redman with contemporary works selected from this national juried call. Together, these works will create a visual conversation about difference, imagination, and the threads of connection that bind us.
In a time when global conversations are calling attention to the power of human connection, this exhibit asks:
- How can art help us understand one another, and ourselves
Presented in partnership by the Quinlan Visual Arts Center (Gainesville, GA), the University of North Georgia (UNG), and the Redman Family Foundation, the exhibition will pair with works by Lenn Redman with contemporary works selected from this national juried call. Together, these works will create a visual conversation about difference, imagination, and the threads of connection that bind us.
About Lenn Redman (artist/author)
Redman began his career on 1933 as a caricaturist at the Century Progress World’s Fair in Chicago, IL. He travelled to Hollywood during the golden age of animation and worked at Disney, Warner Bros, and other major studios. He returned to Chicago in 1941 to run his own commercial art studio. He returned to Hollywood in the 1960s to work again in the field of animation for companies that produced Saturday morning cartoons, such as Hanna-Barbera and Filmation.
In response to the social and moral upheaval of the 1960s, Lenn created a poem, a book, and 12 lithographs titled, What Am I? - a heart-felt call for empathy and unity. Leaving the commercial art world behind, Lenn devoted himself fully to this series, convinced that art has the power to foster self-reflection and social harmony. He continued to share his message until his passing in 1987.
After decades of bringing characters to life on screen and creating hundreds of thousands of caricatures from life, Lenn wrote How to Draw Caricatures (1984) - a book that became the definitive guide for professional caricaturists worldwide. What Lenn never knew is that his methodology would become foundational to computer science. His concept of exaggerating the difference from the mean (EDFAM) is cited in peer reviewed research from ACM, Siggraph, and Frontiers in Virtual Reality.
Redman began his career on 1933 as a caricaturist at the Century Progress World’s Fair in Chicago, IL. He travelled to Hollywood during the golden age of animation and worked at Disney, Warner Bros, and other major studios. He returned to Chicago in 1941 to run his own commercial art studio. He returned to Hollywood in the 1960s to work again in the field of animation for companies that produced Saturday morning cartoons, such as Hanna-Barbera and Filmation.
In response to the social and moral upheaval of the 1960s, Lenn created a poem, a book, and 12 lithographs titled, What Am I? - a heart-felt call for empathy and unity. Leaving the commercial art world behind, Lenn devoted himself fully to this series, convinced that art has the power to foster self-reflection and social harmony. He continued to share his message until his passing in 1987.
After decades of bringing characters to life on screen and creating hundreds of thousands of caricatures from life, Lenn wrote How to Draw Caricatures (1984) - a book that became the definitive guide for professional caricaturists worldwide. What Lenn never knew is that his methodology would become foundational to computer science. His concept of exaggerating the difference from the mean (EDFAM) is cited in peer reviewed research from ACM, Siggraph, and Frontiers in Virtual Reality.
What Am I? by Lenn Redman
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What Am I?
I am People, that's what I am. I am man, woman, child and infant. I am an endless variety of dissimilarity on parade to be looked upon with respect. The time is over for the masquerade. Cast off your garments and reflect. You're in the picture too; don't ever forget. What a face I have! It varies in size, texture, shape and slope, Like that of a cactus, gourd and cantaloupe. My eyes, nose, mouth and ears are large, small, long, short, flat, bulbous, narrow and wide And the spaces between my features are as varied as the features themselves. It has been said they show my soul, those organs called eyes- which bulge, recede, droop, squint, glare and dart, and are round, narrow, slanty, close together and far apart. Of course they show my soul, my eyes, but no more so than the top of my head or the orbs in my skies. And I Am Multicolored. I am a peculiar hue of red, yellow, white, black, brown, tan, gray, pink, bronze, copper, gold and a thousand shades of each. I am as united By the spectrum of my different colors as the planets are united by their orbital relationships. |
What if I had been born red, white, black and yellow?
I mean Really red, white, black and yellow- and blue and green and orange and purple and checkerboard and plaid and candy-striped and polka-dot and herringbone, and- oh, who knows what else? I am what I am And I must know what I am For some day I will see myself from other planets And who knows what I will see? I will see that there are more differences to my makeup than I've ever imagined. Is there the slightest possibility I'd accept myself with objectivity, if not goodwill and mirth Before I've purged myself of all hostility to what there is of me right here on earth? I am a symbiotic temple of seeming contradictions, partial understanding of which may be had by asking questions. Once the answers are known, man will begin to tower. Is there a similarity between the bee and the flower? Is black any more different from white than white is different from black? Is a peg any more different from a hole than a hole is different from a peg? And what of the circle, square and triangle, the three most opposite geometric forms Is one more different from the others than the others are different from the one? The answers, of course, are no; and That is their commonality. The flower and the bee are not at all alike, yet they thrive on each other's existence. And black and white make a thousand beautiful shades of gray. And a peg and a hole may effectuate a strong, inseparable bond. And a circle, square and triangle constitute the architectural foundation for my temple of universal design. |
What Am I?
I am a rhapsodic symphony of differences. But my differences are not individually more unique than their respective counterparts. I am a throbbing, pulsating spirit always on the move, always changing, interplaying with and reacting to the various components of my whole. They comprise infinite semblances that are as varied and different as night and day. Yet from Infinity's vantage night and day are the same. What Am I? I am the glow in flight. I am it and it is I, and You and I and It are One. I am That I AM. c Lenn Redman |