By admin 
Folsom Lake College student Nick Charonis is new to 3D animation. He had always been interested in art, and animation in particular, but after watching the animated movie “Flow” (2024) he decided to try his hand at the same software, Blender.
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Charonis’ first attempt at the art form became the entry “Don’t Drink the Coffee,” which won “Best in Show” at the California State Fair’s Fine Arts Exhibition.
The artwork features what resemble Sour-Patch Kid-esque trolls gathered around objects scattered across a desktop. The impish creatures are engaged in various activities such as soaking in a cup of steaming coffee, meddling with a pair of eyeglasses perched askew on a notebook, crawling across a laptop keyboard and recklessly pressing buttons on a pair of car keys.
“The Shih Tzu that beat out all the other canines,” Jaime Ramirez, the fair’s Programs and Competition Director, said of the winning entry.
For 170 years, the Fine Arts Competition has featured artwork ranging from paintings to sculptures to photography — and more recently, digital compositions.
Charonis is a second year student said he was inspired by the animated movie “Flow” (2024). He said the piece took a month to complete using 3D animation software. He never expected his first attempt would be such a success.
“When I walked in here, I was like, ‘Wow, there’s some amazing pieces in here.’ I kind of felt like an impostor,” Charonis said. “When I when they told me that I won, I was like, ‘Really, this won?’ I was just surprised because 3D art isn’t traditional for fine art competitions.”
In order to render the piece, Charonis modeled each object, building its digital shape line by line. Once he finished an object’s structure, he modeled the material such as color, roughness, transparency and reflection, paying close attention to how each material would logically respond to light — the watch band needed a fabric-like finish whereas the coffee mug required a reflective ceramic surface.
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“I’ve been making art for my whole life. So, but just off and on, and I was interested in being an animator, but then I decided to switch gears and go down a more traditional path. And so now I just do it as a hobby,” Charonis said.
The fair works in partnership with the Sacramento Fine Arts Center (Sac Arts), a nonprofit community arts center that hosts art classes and workshops, and holds exhibitions. Volunteers from Sac Arts work as docents for the State Fair competition — some of the volunteers sit behind art booths as visitors float through the exhibition.
Other featured works include “Regalos” by Gerald Skinner, a watercolor painting of a man sitting on the sidewalk with a yellow reed in his hand and the baskets he wove sitting beside him, glowing in the sun. “Spirit of Freedom” by Kathy Triolo captures horses running through the Nevada plains, their figures cast in shadow as the setting sun glows amber behind them. Skinner and Triolo garnered an Award of Merit for their respective works. “The Codmother” by Ann Hendrickson-Pantos is a massive fish molded out of wire, its rainbow scales made of beer bottles and chewing tobacco lids. Hendrickson-Pantos’ piece won the “Juror’s Award.”
The award ceremony was held on Sunday, July 26th. Charonis was awarded $200, the Golden Bear Award, and a State Fair Rosette.
One visitor, Linda Masuhara, expressed mixed feelings about “Don’t Drink the Coffee” winning Best in Show.
“It’s just I feel like we’re in transition between more traditional art of painting and sketching and sculpting and digital artwork, computer-generated artwork. We’re obviously in the middle of those two worlds. Yeah, and I think it’s interesting that it won. I’m not upset. I don’t mind that it won, but it’s kind of sad that the other forms of art are kind of fading away. I think that’s probably how I feel.”
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