The idea behind the Arts Madness tournament, much like the idea behind the podcast, is to create a fun way of learning about some familiar artists and discovering new ones. Part of my mission is to recognize art in many different forms from the painting in a gallery to the performance in a music video or an exquisitely decorated cake. I try to include artists from different backgrounds and different stages of their careers all as equals. For this year's tournament, I started by making a list of the artists that have been discussed on the podcast so far. Then to get to 64 I needed to add about a dozen or so more. I pulled those from the list of topics I have prepared for future episodes. After compiling my list of 64 diverse artists, I used a spreadsheet to randomly sort everyone for their positions in the backets. 

Each week, I will post the matchups and a form for participants to vote for their favorites. The voting form will simply ask "which is better?" Each voter must decide his or her own criteria for what makes one work of art better than another. Is it about the craftsmanship, the creativity, the expressive qualities? Part of the hope is that this tournament can spark some thoughtful discussions about what we appreciate in a work of art. I hope you enjoy it, maybe discover some new artists you like or would like to learn more about, and of course please tell your friends.