Art Prize - Day 1, Part 1

 

 

What a trip!! 

 

Since it's inception I have wanted to get up to Grand Rapids Michigan to experience Art Prize for myself.  It's been going for about five years now and it seems that previous years have always had other events taking up my days. 

 

This year a dear friend made the reservations for the trip as a birthday present.  It was a MOST EXCELLENT gift!  I had so much fun and was so amazed by what I saw that I am probably going to bore you with my gushing and drivel.  I am going to break it down into three days so you still may be bored anyway. 

 

If nothing else, don't read this - but DO look at the photos and think about the development, production, time and thought involved in these pieces. 

 

The works are funny, giant, ridiculous, clever, incredible, sensuous, frightening, awe inspiring, beautiful.....etc.   As far as I can tell we only missed  a handful of venues.  And these venues were churches, museums, schools, storefronts, hotels, restaurants, parks, the river, outside walls, bridges, sky walks, sidewalks, and even strung between buildings above and across a street.

 

Their messages were just as individual as their form - some quite moving, some hard to understand.  There were a few pieces that just yelled at you while others drew you into a sense of calmness.  I just love what art does - how it makes me feel and think. The few pieces I own I love and there has never been a day that passes without looking at them and knowing I love what I have because of how it makes me feel.

 

 

So...we begin with Day 1.  Sunday September 30th.  We arrive in Grand Rapids at about noon.  The streets are crazy with pedestrians and cars.  Got me a little ramped up after a 3+ hour drive.  You could feel the energy in the air.  We check into the hotel and we are offf!

 

These first three are graphite on paper.  The one with the woman's face in the water is actually one of several in a series.

 



This next one is a prism created not by a bevel in glass but of strings.  As you moved around it, the colors changed.



 

Wax lips and chins...ran the length of a wall - like 12 feet.

 Below - can't say just what it is, but I can say it is made of nothing but wood.  Every little bit.

 

 

Interactive art - there was a "mallet" attached to it to be used to gong the gas canister.  Oddly - this was in the front of a church and it almost sounded like a church bell.  Clever!

 

 

Yo-yo with the world on it.  It spun.  You figure it out....

 

An American flag made of mixed media.  Look close and you will see what media was used.

 

 

 

 

This one could have been inspired by sights just up the road from my house!

 

This is great.  It's just what it looks like - a tunnel of brown paper lunch sacks.  Listed under "materials used":  Brown paper bags and the artist's own breath.  Love an artist with a sense of humor!

 

There were several of these half shperes on the wall with intricate drawing on them and lines of piercings with light moving from behind them.  This one has a human eye in the center...that blinks now and then.

 

To all you deer hunters out there.  I know it is now bow season.  May you never see these two crossing your path.  Just sayin'....

 

Ceramics....a bazillion of them all set in a big circle on the rooftop patio of the UICA.  Don't quote me on that location, but I am fairly sure this is where this was.

 

 

 

Message in a bottle....chandelier. Those are tiny monitors or screens in those bottles and they were on, or broadcasting, or screening or one of those words.

 

"Bird Feeder"  he's made of silverware....get it?

 

Scrappy Dick....made of scrap metal, of course

A calliope or musicbox type thing made from scrap also.

I cannot explain the stairwell of the parking garage....and don't think I want to.  Can't tell you the story behind the "eyes" either.  Sorry!

This one, though, is really cool.  This is made from leftover pizza sauce cans and wire.  The whole thing is metal.  Wow!  Sewn!

 

 

This is amazing!  It's jelly beans.

 

 

This picture is made from punching out little squares from cans and sewing them onto the canvas.  Crazy!  Those are bar codes in the third picture.

  I think I will stop now - it's around 4 PM on that first day and we are about half done.  we are only about half way through the first day and, frankly, I have had enough for now.  Stop back though.  It gets more and more interesting each day.