Art prize description

I'm re-entering the student art prize this year after being rejected last year :'(

We have to write a 200-word description which contributes to whether or not ur piece gets shortlisted, which I think is really stupid because an art competition should be an art competition and not a description-writing competition. The art shouldn't need a whole verbal explanation in order for it to be considered worthy or meaningful. And writing an essay about a meaningless painting won't make it any more meaningful, by the way. Yeah context is important but at the end of the day it's about what you're saying in the artwork. And for most of last years shortlist I'm just not gleaning any of their deep meanings just from looking at their paintings, you know? I don't give a shit if the spoon in ur painting is ur dad's christening spoon. To me it's just a spoon. You've painted it like it's just a spoon.

art really is aesthetics and the meaning behind it is pretty much necessarily an accident, otherwise it's not art, it's just a self-conscious collection of images and it's really obvious when it is that. Just like when a dancer is self conscious, you can tell when an artwork is self-conscious, you know? 

anyway, here's my description, it's kind of half-true, but I've very much tried to just appeal to the judges' taste with it:

In this painting, I've tried to approach the idea of "light" as the idea of being unburdened by responsibility. Having entered my twenties, I (as many others) finally feel that I'm on the cusp of true adulthood, which has made me acutely aware of the responsibilities which await me in this decade of my life. I've realised how lucky I am to have the lifestyle that I do when historically, so many women my age would have already been married with children. Even today, many people my age have no choice but to work full time, meanwhile I have the opportunity to study, socialise, and indulge in my hobbies. 

Her limbs limp, the central figure is half-engulfed by the soft background of the meadow as she fades into a midday sleep, a luxury few can afford. She lays in ecstatic ignorance of the children at either side of her; face-down, neither she nor the viewer is forced to look them in the eye just yet. Symbols of both responsibility and of the future, they themselves lie weightless, seemingly floating above the background like figments of the main figure's imagination. For now, they lack material form, and her burden remains light.  

Kate says it sounds poetic. I'll take that. 

If you really wanna know, the painting's just about virginity, virginity and ecstasy, I guess. I suppose what I've written is essentially true, but I started the painting in summer 2023 when I was neither in my twenties nor studying - you know? 

I would write more about it's 'real' meaning to me but I don't like the idea of doing that. That's like incest - I'm not meant to write about my own painting- that's the critics' job. They would probably know better than me anyway.