BTDesign is proud to announce the winners of The MASTER OF 2002 Award.

Nico Bastone Master of 2002 Best Photography
Vladimir Hristov Best Painter	Valentin Yotkov Best Sculptor	Karin Kuhlmann Best Digital Artist

The nominees were the artists who won the Golden Art Site Award and subsequently exhibited their artworks here during 2002 as Guest Artists of the Month.
A panel of judges reviewed each nominee's site and granted points for each of the following categories: Best Painting, Best Photography, Best Sculpture and Best Digital Art. The artist scoring the highest score was proclaimed Master of 2002.
I would like to thank the members of the international panel for their precious help:

Moser, USA
Heidi Walsh, Germany
Siegfried Schreck, Germany
Tom Powell, USA
Hans-Joerg Krauth, Germany
Rocío Heredia, Mexico
Derek Oakes, UK
Barbara Tampieri, Italy
Eve Riser-Roberts, USA
Gene Gill, USA
Michael Hudson, Australia
Karen Musick, USA
Ismo Jokiaho, Finland
Helyn Davenport, USA
Basil Filippone, USA
Colleen Deery, USA
Mark Dornblaser, USA
Risa Rosine, Germany
Dwayne Miller, Germany

Award graphics by Barbara Tampieri.

Finalists for the best three places in each category:

Master of 2002	Jury Votes
Nico Bastone	275
Valentin Yotkov	270
Curtis Knapp	257

Best Painting	Jury Votes
Vladimir Hristov	242
Raingem	233
Pancho Basurco	213

Best Sculpture	Jury Votes
Valentin Yotkov	270
Heath Satow	251
Ray Cologon	245

Best Photography	Jury Votes
Nico Bastone	275
Curtis Knapp	257
Nick Chaldakov	246

Best Digital Art	Jury Votes
Karin Kuhlmann	242
Cynthia Frederick	236

The winners of 2000>>>
The winners of 2001>>>
The winners of 2003>>>
The winners of 2004>>>
The winners of 2005>>>

The Master of 2002 is

Nico Bastone was born in Piana degli Albanesi (Sicily, Italy) in 1953. He fell in love with photography in 1967 at school in Turin when he attended a photography class whose teacher was a photo-amateur friar, Father Giuseppe. He didn't own a camera himself at that time, they were ten pupils and a Smena 8, a Russian camera. At 19 Nico bought his first reflex, a Yashica FR. At present his equipment is more complete, a Contax and a Leica with original lenses, but he likes to say "when you get fascinated by photography every camera can be great to let you express yourself. The pleasure is on watching the world through its eye, keeping your finger ready to shot and capture the image".
Nico has a peculiar eye for portraiting his homeland. Sicily is a land of contract and passion and his B/W photos depict the heart and soul of Sicilian people at best.
It has been a pleasure to have him as Guest Artist this year and to see the jury proclaim him Master of 2002 with the highest score.
Please visit his page at BTDesign Art Gallery here where you can read an interview with him and don't forget to visit his website, where you'll find many other photos.

Barbara