On Wednesday, Bravo TV premieres the second season of "Work of Art" (I somehow completely missed the first season). I previewed the first episode earlier this week to see what to expect from the cable network to which I devote most of my TV-watching time.

I was pleased and intrigued by the show. A lot of interesting work is going to come out of it, and I've gotten so used to the reality competition format that I'm not so annoyed by the excessive production, interviews, background music, commercial breaks, etc. that go along with it. The first challenge is pretty neat too: The artists have to take kitschy art and make it world class.

The host and cast of Bravo's "Work of Art" season 2.

 I enjoy looking at art, but I am not an art person. So while I might be able to tell you if something is good or bad, I'd never be able to tell you why something is good or bad. This particular challenge highlighted that so well, and the comments from the judges and others viewing the art help to explain WHY the art succeeds or fails. (The results of the first episode: I liked the pick for winner but not so much for the person going home. I didn't think that artist's piece was the worst, and I wish that artist would get to stick around longer for more than one reason, though I don't want to spoil the results.)

The cast of Lifetime's "Project Runway" season 9.

When I was considering what I enjoyed about the show, I was reminded of what I liked so much about another Bravo show, "Platinum Hit" and what I'm loving about "Project Runway" (which I'm tuning in to for the first time this season because of contestant Joshua McKinley, a Willoughby native). These shows take some incredibly talented people and push them to do their best work every week. The contestants are creative in ways I can only dream about, and the competitions give us talentless folks a front-row seats to their creative processes every week.

During commercial breaks of "Project Runway" in recent weeks, Lifetime has been promoting its new show, "Project Accessory," and I'm now really looking forward to another show and several more episodes of peeking inside some creative minds to learn how they do what they do.

Related links:

• Preview "Work of Art"
• Preview "Project Accessory"
• Jean Bonchak's "Project Runway" diaries

-- Cheryl Sadler | CSadler@News-Herald.com | @nhcheryl