Any artist, emerging or established, was invited to show work at various approved venues in the city. There is no official jury or curator - the winner will be determined by votes from the audience and all event attendees 16 or older can vote if they register at the event. All top 10 finalists will win cash prizes. The winner will be named at an evening ceremony Thursday, Oct. 8.

Powers' work, "Field of Reeds," is a kinetic sculpture 4 1/2 feet in height by 14 feet by 10 feet. It is composed of 1001 vertical "reeds" held in place and supported by an articulated wooden assemblage connected to an electric motor that causes the reeds to sway back and forth. The historical touchstone for this is Sanjusangendo, a temple in Kyoto, Japan, that houses 1001 human-scale gilt wooden sculptures of Kannon, the Japanese spirit of compassion. A second influence is an ancient Egyptian mythological belief regarding death that includes Sekhet-Hetepet, or Fields of Reeds. The souls of the deceased must overcome several obstacles in their journey through the underworld and encounter Anubis, who weighs the soul against the feather of Ma'at. Righteous ones were allowed to join the afterlife and granted a plot in the Field of Reeds.

Powers discovered his work was in the top 10 this past week and booked airline tickets.

"Really it is a huge surprise. There are almost 1,300 artists involved. To be included at all is exciting,  and to be in the top 10 is astounding. It's a real honor," Powers said. He had originally heard about the competition from a friend in Georgia but almost didn't enter.

"They hadn't done [the competition] before, I wasn't sure what this thing was, so I kind of did it on a lark," he said. "How can you not throw your hat into the ring for a quarter of a million dollars?"

Powers is assistant professor of sculpture at UAB. He attended the University of Georgia (M.F.A. in sculpture, with distinction, 2008) and Vanderbilt University (B.A. in art history, 2001). Powers is the recipient of a prestigious Joan Mitchell Foundation MFA Grant and a Southeastern College Art Conference Individual Artist Fellowship and the 2001 Margaret Stonewall Wooldridge Hamblet Award.