KLARA GLOSOVA From the 2014 series Life on the Sidelines, watercolor paintings from the perspective of standing on the sidelines of kid soccer games week in and week out. Good art has proved time and again that the banal is not without wonder, and these works are a terrific example of the tradition.
  • Courtesy of the artist and Bryan Ohno Gallery
  • KLARA GLOSOVA From the 2014 series Life on the Sidelines, watercolor paintings from the perspective of standing on the sidelines of kid soccer games week in and week out. Good art has proved time and again that the banal is not without wonder, and these works are a terrific example of the tradition.

• Gretchen Frances Bennett*, Seattle
• Dawn Cerny, Seattle
• Klara Glosova, Seattle
• Ralph Pugay, Portland
• Peter Scherrer, Bellingham

After reviewing 446 applications from artists across Washington, Oregon, and Idaho (a significantly smaller pool than last year), this year's Betty Bowen Award committee chose those five finalists, one of whom will get $15,000 in cash and an exhibition that opens at Seattle Art Museum on October 15. Two additional prizes of $2,500 will be awarded.

This year's list could almost be a curated exhibition called Recognizable Images, Twisted. All of the artists work in the more traditional mediums—painting, printmaking, and sculpture—but their voices do vary quite a bit.

It's nice to see women on the list; all three awards last year went to men.

Let the betting begin.

GRETCHEN FRANCES BENNETT She whispers in colored pencil. You strain to hear. Her new body of work is called Recording.
  • Courtesy of the artist
  • GRETCHEN FRANCES BENNETT She whispers in colored pencil. You strain to hear. Her new body of work is called Recording.

* Gretchen Frances Bennett is the artist formerly known as Gretchen Bennett, yes.

The 2014 Betty Bowen Committee members are:
Leo Berk
Jeffrey Bishop
Gary Glant (Chair)
Peggy Golberg
Anne Gould Hauberg
Mike Hess
Isaac Layman
Mark Levine
Catharina Manchanda (SAM’s Jon & Mary Shirley Curator of Modern & Contemporary Art) Llewelyn Pritchard
Greg Robinson
Norie Sato
Bill True
Maggie Walker
Dan Webb
Tom Wilson
Merrill Wright