Winners of Oklahoma Waterfowl Stamp Design Contest Announced

First posted on 10-17-2007

The 2008-2009 Oklahoma Waterfowl Stamp design competition results are in, and first place goes to Russ Duerksen of Sioux Falls, S.D. His winning art, displaying mallards in flight as a Labrador retriever watches from a boat, will be featured on the 2008-09 Oklahoma Waterfowl Stamp.

Honorable mentions went to James McKew of Minden, Nev., and Larry Simons of Lebanon, Ore.
“We added a few new elements to the stamp design contest this year, and we received some great entries,” said Micah Holmes, information supervisor for the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation. “One of the biggest changes is that we gave artists a chance to include a retriever in their artwork, and this year Russell proved this could be an interesting new dynamic of the competition, not to mention a great addition to the stamp.”

Also new to this year’s competition was the manner in which the artwork was judged.
“In previous Oklahoma duck stamp design competitions, the winning artwork was determined by a small panel of judges,” Holmes said. “We asked for the public’s input to help choose the best artwork for the stamp. After all, they are the ones purchasing and collecting the stamps. Selected entries were displayed at the 2007 Oklahoma Wildlife Expo last month, and hundreds of visitors were able to voice their opinions on their favorite entries.”

Duck stamp sales help finance many projects that benefit ducks and geese. Since the duck stamp program began in 1980, thousands of acres of waterfowl habitat have been created through duck stamp revenues.

Entries were judged on anatomical accuracy, artistic composition and suitability for printing. The winner and honorable mentions also will appear in a future issue of Outdoor Oklahoma magazine.

A selection of waterfowl stamp art from previous years is currently on display in the lobby of the Wildlife Department headquarters located at 1801 N. Lincoln, in Oklahoma City.

Prints of previous winning waterfowl artwork can be purchased at wildlifedepartment.com/oklahomastampprogram.htm.