Day 1 continues....
Where I left off with day 1 was when Kim and I finally gave up trying to get a table so we might imbibe in some beverages in "The B.O.B" This stands for Big Old Building.
See, Grand Rapids, in its hey-day was not only on the river but also on the railroad line. A virtual haven of goods, both coming and going. Like other such places, times changed and left Grand Rapids in a lurch. There are DOZENS of old warehouses scattered throughout the central city area, as well as beyond, and turning those into hip condos for the up and coming generation was only going to go so far. The downtown area sees a mix of business executives and college kids as Grand Valley University is just across the river. ( I don't know for sure how many colleges are in GR, but there are at least 5 that I know of.) Anyway, in a wise move of mixing the aforementioned, the B.O.B is essentially a three story restaurant....that is at least three different restaurants, probably more.
Anyway, it was too busy so we headed back to the hotel and ran into this guy. It's titled "Albert Einstein, Between Theorems".
The Big A immortalized in bronze with a Frisbee in hand. How neat is that? I couldn't help but smile when I read the title.
We proceeded into the lounge at the hotel and revived ourselves enough to schlep up to our room for a pre-dinner nose-powdering. But, naturally, we saw signs for Art Prize along the way in the hotel so, naturally, we just HAD to go see. And what we saw was crazy cool! A 3D dragon made of gold buttons and polyfiliment. There were 40,000 gold buttons in this piece. It was lit from above which is why you see that hard line of light going across the photo. Can't be helped, I'm afraid. Doesn't make it any less amazing, either. BTW - his name is "Puff" and you will see him again later.
Refreshed and happy after seeing Puff, we headed off to see two of my favs - Justine and Joe!! Joe is my nephew and he is engaged to Justine. Both are attending college in Grand Rapids so a dinner with them was a must! They were delightful company and I was pleased to have the chance to spend some time with these two without the other 7 million family members hanging aroud. Selfish? Maybe. Do I feel bad about that? NO way! It was great!!
BTW, that glass encrusted cylander with the copper hanging down behind us is an Art Prize entry. Clearly (or not) it's a tree.
Onto more art now...keep in mind it's around 10 PM by now and the first day isn't over yet!
Our first after-dinner art is Van Gogh's "Starry Night"....made entirely of different colors of lint. None of it is dyed or painted. It's just lint. That's a lot of towels and/or sweatshirts, I think!
Next - a clown fish made of uninflated balloons. Oh the imagination!
This guy is a piece that we had heard about before coming to GR. It's a grizzley made of pine needles. Some of these pieces make me cringe at the monotony of putting them together. Kind of like the time I made a foot tall mosaic snowman. SO redundant. In both cases, though, the end result was worth it.
Laser light show in the J.W Mariott Lounge from 8 - 11 PM nightly.
Needless to say, sitting on a bench seat and leaning on a window taking a photo straight up is not as easy as it used to be...for some reason. Or maybe dinner had something to do with it. Hmmm.
Just two more to show you from Day 1. First, a study in values.
And last is Marilyn immortalized in....well....stuff!
With Day 1 over, the next two days will hopefully be as entertaining. Or not. I am certainly having fun reliving this trip. Of course I hope you are enjoying it too, or maybe feeling a little inspiration? Art does that to you, you know. Like I've said before - yeah, it's like that.
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