Well, that's it. At 4:45 p.m. this afternoon, the TPJ editorial team viewed the last of just over 5,000 slides and digital images entered into the 9th annual Pastel 100 competition. The process began last Tuesday, when Sarah, Jessica, Cindy and myself cloistered ourselves into a dark room here in the office and—together with a slide projector and laptop, Diet Cokes, and a towering stack of slide carousels—started the process of pre-jurying thousands of works in pastel. The task always leaves us feeling a surprising mix of exhilaration and exhaustion. And this year, because we happened to keep the still life category for last, we found ourselves adding "hungry" to our condition as we were treated to a visual feast of pears, blueberries, kiwi, tea cakes, jellybeans, and even cherry cheesecake.

So what happens next? Our selections will be sent to the five category jurors who'll select the top 20 winners in each of their respective categories. We'll start contacting winners in mid-October, and then we'll get to work on the March/April issue in which we present all the winning works of art (see last year's issue).

Our thanks to all of you who entered. It's always inspiring to see so much skill and artistry. And, though it's sometimes agonizing to pull out a piece that is "close, but not quite there," it's exciting because that artist's potential feels almost tangible.