The Coalition against Keystone XL Pipeline has announced a visual art contest with cash prizes totally $350.00.  Entries will be submitted digitally.  All types of visual art are accepted including, but not limited to, photographs, cartoons, quilts, paintings and sculptures.  The purpose of the art contest is to draw attention to the harmful effects of the Keystone XL pipeline.  Construction of the pipeline is scheduled to begin in Oklahoma and Texas on or about June 1.

Deadline for submission of entries is 11:59 p.m. on Monday, April 30, 2012.  Grand prize:  $200.00.  The grand prize winner will be determined by a panel of judges.

2nd Place: $150.00 – This is a people’s choice award.  All entrants that are accepted for publication will be posted on our website and the public will be able to vote on a winner.

Winners will be announced on Sunday, June 3.

Instructions for downloading the art to the website are coming soon.

There is no fee for entering the contest.   You can enter as many times as you wish.  There is no residency requirement.  Entries will be accepted from anywhere in the world.

All entries will be displayed on our website .  Entrants agreed to have their submissions posted on our website.  Entrants must be 18 years of age by April 30, 2012.

TransCanada is a Canadian company using imminent domain to force people in six states to give up their land so they can build the Keystone XL pipeline. They have already cut deals to sell the oil to China, Europe and South America once it reaches the refineries on the Gulf.  The Coalition avers that if TransCanada gets by with this, it will set a precedent. Any foreign corporation will be able to waltz in here and bully us around, forcibly taking our land for their businesses.

Pricey Harrison wrote in the Charlotte Observer:

The safety record for TransCanada, the oil giant pushing Keystone XL, is full of glaring problems. In June of 2010, the company started operating the Keystone 1 pipeline. One year later, it had spilled 14 times, including a rupture in North Dakota that oozed out 21,000 gallons of sticky crude. That same year, an Enbridge tar sands pipeline in Michigan burst apart, spewing more than a million gallons of toxic crude into the Kalamazoo River, costing millions of dollars to clean up and poisoning more than 40 miles of downstream waters.

The counties the Keystone XL pipeline will cross in Oklahoma include Lincoln, Seminole, Coal, Atoka, Bryan, Hughes, Okfuskee and Creek.