• Photo by muir adams photography
• Duane Flatmo

Ahhhh, if only they took notes, all those people who wander the galleries at Arts Alive! and Arts! Arcata and all our other perpetually excited! evenings of  art. There’s amazing stuff there. Dazzling, glorious, wonderful paintings and more, by wonderful visual artists. People are looking. Are they just forgetting the artists’ names?

 Or when it comes to Humboldt art, perhaps there is something that only loves a wall, that wants the brilliant paint splashed over it.

 One of you begged us: “Please highlight any artist other than Duane Flatmo.”

 Last year, we even tried a special category, “Best visual artist (apart from Duane Flatmo).

 Duane, it’s not that we don’t love you. We love your eye-rolling octopus -- great Burning Man video -- your dimension-bending faces, the whole Flatmo thing. We bet you’d gladly give somebody else a turn now and then if it were just up to you, but there goes 12.9 percent of Humboldt, lovin’ you again for our best visual artist. Three times as many votes as anyone else. Take a bow!

 -- Carrie Peyton Dahlberg

The Breakdown: Duane Flatmo 12.9%, Jesse Wiedel 3.7%, Sonny Wong 3.1%, Lush Newton 2.7%, Andrew Daniel 2.0%, Stock Schleuter 2.0%, Voter Turnout: 32nd.