Selection of judges comments: “The blanket reminded me a bit of the clothes covering the heads of the lovers in Magritte’s “Kiss”. I was compelled by the “cool” hard edge painting style in relation to the dark intensity of the image.” -Gerry Bergstein
"This shows great conviction in and commitment to a style of painting, done with excellent and elegant execution. We liked the nice sense of arrested motion and the sense that the subject was caught in a moment, and not posed." -Emily Evelyth and Penn Young "...the painting has brilliant light and interesting patterns of color creating both serenity and movement."-Jean Lightman, president, Guild of Boston Artists
"...displays a strong sense of design with an almost posterized patternization of color and light which gives the work its visual strength. The pose and style evokes Degas but the artistic approach, with its mechanical computerized organization of forms reminds me of a modern version or Vermeer's world seen through a camera obscura." -Rob Liberace
"Edward Hopper famously remarked that all he was interested in was portraying sunlight hitting the side of a building. Mehta's painterly work depicts the sun's rays, a sign painter and the artist herself-a wonderful commentary on how light affects the act of painting." -Katherine French
"This impressive work tricks your eyes and blurs between photograph and painting. The luminosity, steady and firm brush strokes represented by the artist, gives life to the narrative and illuminated the entire room with its powerful bright colors."-Claudia Fiks
"Masterful painterly technique, powerful graphic presence, especially for such a small scale painting. The light seems to emanate from the painting. Gorgeous interplay of figure/ground relationship. The red underpainting adds kinetic, electric charge to the mostly neutral palette. Also, I appreciate the fact that the subject is not a monumental or typical one, but something observed almost as if from the corner of our eyes as we pass, and then becomes quietly heroic." -Elli Crocker
"A colorful, fun image, this painting has excellent proportions of light to dark values, bright to neutral color, big to small shapes. Nice underpainting showing through, clear drawing skills and I even like the signature and its placement." -Deborah Quinn Munson
"The simple grey and black background recalls paintings by Dutch masters, as it forces the viewer to focus on the items in the foreground. The angle of composition and the diagonal reflects Mehta's mastery of depth and also encourages the viewer to interact with this visually arresting painting." -Christine O'Donnell, Owner, Beacon Gallery, Boston, MA
"I was struck by the dynamic composition, color choices, and gesture of the character. The painting creates a sense of mystery and invites the viewer to be part of the experience... the difficult foreshortening is masterfully executed." -Vladimir Zimakov, Director, Wedeman Gallery, Lasell College, Newton MA