"A Matter of Time" by Paul Baliker
Yesterday I attended the Grand Rapids “Artprize”. Grand Rapids is about a two hour drive north of Sturgis. Last year was the first “Artprize”. I wasn’t sure what it was going to be like, so I didn’t attend. This year the venue was widely displayed on my local television channels and I was really excited about checking it out. Artprize is an art competition with a huge pay out for the winning artist, $250,000. There are other prizes as well with a total of nearly a half a million dollars. Last year around 1200 artists participated and this year found over 1700 artists throwing their hats in the ring coming from many states and even other countries. Without a doubt this is one of the most amazing art venues I have ever had the pleasure to witness! I kept thinking while I was in Grand Rapids that this was a real “happening” event. I’m already thinking about next year and hoping I am able to attend it again. I highly recommend this event to anyone that is able to make the trip. I would even suggest planning a small vacation around it as you will never see anything quite like it any where else. I believe this is a wonderful boost for the city of Grand Rapids as well. The crowds were enormous. I t was wonderful seeing so many people coming out to look at art. The Michigan State vs. Michigan game was even on and people were not rushing home to watch the game. They stayed to look at the art!
The downtown Grand Rapids area is very quaint and I loved being down there checking out the many different styles of art. I was only probably able to see a small portion of this event. You really need several days to see it all. I was there for around seven hours and went to several different places to see the art. I am exhausted because it was a lot of walking and it is quite spread out over the downtown area. This year it was also out at Frederik Meijer Garden and Sculpture Park. I didn’t get out there and I also didn’t get down by Grand Valley State University. I had already attended the Chihuly exhibit so I knew I didn’t plan on going out to the park. I’m going to walk you through a lot of what I saw today but concentrate on some of the key pieces that really spoke to me.
I planned my trip on the computer and figured I would head to the Grand Rapids Art Museum first. Unfortunately, I think everyone else was thinking the same thing. I had to wait about a half an hour in a very long line to get into the building.
This is a panel from the final piece, Cavalry.
The very long line to get into the G.R.A.M. (Grand Rapids Art Museum)
Everyone was there, like me, to see the number one award winner, a huge pencil drawing by Chris LaPorte. He won the $250,000 prize. It is quite amazing that a pencil drawing won. He used a #2 pencil, nothing else!
I didn’t get to see it! When I got inside there was another hour and a half wait to get upstairs to see the piece. After driving two hours I wasn’t going to spend my day just waiting in lines, so I opted out on this one. It will be on display until early January so I may try to go back to see it! In the lower part of the G.R.A.M. were some wonderful pieces. Two in particular really stood out for me.
The first piece is called “Salt and Earth” and was created by Young Kim from Winston Salem, North Carolina. This artwork is hard to describe. Kim became friends with the woman in the picture. She is suffering a serious illness. The picture is projected from lights above onto the salt below in a calotype photography method. This is also a top ten winner. Unfortunately, someone stepped on one of the pieces. This piece will fade over time just as the person he met and is depicted in the photos, Patrice, will become weaker and fade with her illness.
Salt piece by Kim Young
As I walked into the room I was greeted by these strange pictures under the lights. When I turned I saw the large cirlces of salt on the floor with the picture of a woman.
I was disappointed that I couldn’t get upstairs but I was totally mesmerized by this piece created by Janice Arnold and titled “Chroma Passage”. I was literally transformed from time and place to a tranquil feeling of being at the beach on Lake Michigan. When I was inside this webbed structure I noticed other people just busily rushing through it. I wanted one of two things to happen. I wanted them to stop and feel what I was feeling or quickly get out of the way so I could enjoy my moment. I felt like I could hear the waves rushing in and I could feel the power of the sun beating down. I feel this piece was “transformational” because I was transformed from the art museum to a wonderful space out on the lake! I could see her concept in the Petoskey stones that she sprinkled outside the space onto the sidewalk. This piece was designed around this space for the museum. I truly am shocked that it didn’t win any awards that I am aware of as it was the most emotionally feeling piece that I personally witnessed! In her own words Janice said, “I hope Chroma Passage will be a transformative experience, changing the way the world understands textiles, art, and the personal connection we have to both.” The amazing thing is I photographed her work statement to read later. I felt all I was feeling without reading her statement. The word transformative was used by both of us so I think her art was highly successful from my perspective. She made me feel something special and it stood out from all of the other artworks I viewed yesterday!
This was put up in a hallway made entirely of windows. This is hand made felt.
I felt the waves moving and crashing against the shoreline.
After going to the G.R.A.M., I went to the “BOB” which was basically the “big old building”. There were a lot of people and many sculptural pieces. Here are a few of these:
This was made with metal scraps.
Artwork could be sublime or even ridiculous. This piece is reminiscent of Claus Oldenburg's sculptures.
This sculpture was billed as the “human sculpture”. This was a performance piece. He stayed still but came out of character and surprised the crowd. I video taped him. Unfortunately I had to hold my small, cheap camera over my head to get over the crowd. In the process I see his head is missing much of the time. You can get a laugh off this one!
Here he is looking like a bronze sculpture!
Later in the day when I was at the Van Andel Museum I saw this human sculpture. Many people were teasing each other about whether he was really a person sitting there. I’m sure they witnessed the other human sculpture piece. This piece felt like he was truly alive. You could almost feel and hear him breathing. It was quite amazing!
The day was quite overwhelming with so many different art styles and pieces. It was an art lovers dream paradise!
Here is an artwork that you could touch and play with.
Some how with my Catholic upbringing this reminded me of "Palm Sunday"! Go figure!
This piece was made up of pennies. This was an award winner.
Art is so subjective as what appeals to me might not appeal to you and so on. I didn’t really care for the penny piece but it was big and it was complete from front to back and it rotated. This piece was out by the Gerald Ford Museum. There were some artworks made out of huge numbers of strange materials like toothpicks, straws, miniature balls, and other things as well. They seemed like they must have been done by people with either great patience or OCD or maybe even both!
These lips are made completely out of clear straws and back lit with a red acrylic piece.
This mermaid was made out of thousands and thousands of toothpicks!
This was made up of little tiny balls put into clear channel tubing.
AS you can see I went from place to place witnessing all kinds of unusual artworks. Here are more.
Inside this piece you could make his "brain" work. This was in response to how this artist gets his ideas.
This piece had many familiar objects on it including a yellow submarine. Of course I was reminded of the Beatles. Yesterday was John Lennon's birthday as well.
I felt some fear for the little rabbit here.
A lot of dots here!
A beautiful oil painting, photographic really.
This piece reminded me of Pieter Bruegel and Hieronymus Bosch, strange indeed.
This painting had cut out pieces which looked like miniature Polish Wycinank style paper cutting.
I think this art was from Yugoslavia and it was the story of his home. You can see the effects of war.
I came across a piece that was made up of dreams. These were essentially Ball canning jars filled with objects and some kind of preservative and then placed on shelves. I thought it was a thought provoking piece and rather whimsical. She included what looked like “toe tags” with many of her dreams on them.
There were also street performers. There were many pianos out on the streets that anyone could play. I talked to Carlos and here is a bit from him.
I saw hundreds of artworks yesterday. It was just a portion of what was at the event. I left with a wonderful feeling of having been exposed to some great art as well as loving the fact that so many people came out to see art, just like me. I really cannot wait until next year. It will be wonderful to see what people come up with next! My son asked me if I wanted to submit something. Some of these pieces took countless hours. I think maybe when I retire, it could be fun. The second place winner looks like a painting but it is actually stained glass. It took the artist 2700 hours to create. Each piece is so tiny. The overall effect is just breath taking! What I’m trying to give you is a feel for Artprize and hopefully I have done that. Just remember that over 1700 artists had artwork on display and they came from all over the world with most from the states. Seriously, if you can make it to Artprize next year, you won’t be sorry. This was started by the De Vos family who happen to be very rich. They are the owners of Amway. The son who is around 27 is the brain child of the event. I encourage you to check out more about this at the event website.
This is not a political event. This is an art event that speaks to all people. There is something for everyone!
I loved these paintings. I'll put a couple up so you can see them better.
This piece was hanging over the river.
Back at the BOB. These pieces are made out of glass.
An optimistic piece at the Gerald Ford Museum.
A rather huge wood block print
This was made from ceramic pieces like a mosaic.
This is a splashing wave.
This was the first piece I saw. Notice the man performing beside it.
This was back at the BOB!
An oil painting at the G.R.A.M.
This one just made me think about "when pigs fly"! lol
This piece was interactive as you could sign your name.
This piece was made up with little tiny stitching.
This piece reminded me of a cross between Van Gogh and Seurat.
This is a cut paper piece hanging at DeVos Place.
These aren't fairies but they sure reminded me of hidden little fairies. If you didn't pay attention, these could be easily missed.
These fish looked like they were ready to attack!
This was an interesting display with the intricate lace cut out pattern on the wheel barrows and shovels.
Beautiful and made up of numerous small pieces of glass.
This is a close up view of the stained glass piece.
This is the "Dream" piece.
From the dream piece.
This was an award winner. You could only view it through a window. It tells a story kind of like we are all tied together.
This is another award winner. The heads move gracefully up and down, a kinetic sculpture.
This piece was based on found objects around the city of Detroit. It was moving in many ways.
This piece was put in a bad location which was poorly lit. It's beautiful.
A close up look at the peacock's head.
As you can see, yesterday was a splendid day. From my drive up with the beautiful weather with the many colorful trees to my drive back contemplating my super artistic day. All is right with the world when you can see the potential and creativity of people!
I just want to make a special note here. The “Throw Them a Bone” piece is running into this piece. I want to keep all of these pictures up so try to ignore it please. I’m just not that talented nor patient enough to go through any more time trying to fix it. I’m not about to delete and put back on all of these pictures. I’m not perfect but hopefully you will like this post anyway!