ArtPrize

The city of Grand Rapids is the stage right now for an international art contest called ArtPrize.  The general public decides who the winner will be.  The prize--$250,000.  This is the third year for the contest and it's quite amazing.  My husband and I, along with a group of friends, went yesterday afternoon.  There were over 2000 pieces of art, of which we only saw about a quarter of, if that.  It amazes me how many talented people there are.  Here is just a sampling of what we saw.  

The amazing thing with this collage is that you can't see

the eye until you look at it in a photograph. 

  This was not done with a cast but was sculpted by hand.

I don't remember it being so blurry.

Amazing when you look at it up close. 

I wonder when my husband posed for this?
These are truly abs of steel.  Or maybe bronze.

 I'm going to get out my son's Legos and work on something for next year.

 This is a single sheet of hand-cut black paper.

The artist cut 20,000 holes to make this.

 Now that's a big bird.

I thought this should have been in the top ten.

This was done with duct tape. 

These are monkeys hanging from a bridge. 

One of the nice things about ArtPrize is that the museums 

are open to the public for free, since they are venues for 

much of the art.

The following pieces were voted in as the top ten.

This is entitled "Rain".

I'm sure it was more difficult than it looks.

"Rusty" was made from old junk.

Note the old bicycle seat on it's nose, 

the tire with hubcaps for the collar, and the trees for legs.

"Mantis Dreaming" 

"Ocean Exodus" is carved from driftwood.  

You have to look closely at it to see all the intricacies.

There are dolphin, a sea turtle, jelly fish, an octopus 

and more carved into this.

 "Under Construction" was interesting.  The man on the left is real.

He would start hammering and moving around every now and then.

"President Ford Visits ArtPrize"  

The artist was there demonstrating how he sculpts.  

He formed a finger while we were standing there. 

"Grizzlies on the Ford"

These wood carvings were in the fountain

outside the Gerald Ford Presidential Museum.

If you live anywhere near Grand Rapids, this is definitely worth going to.  It's free and they have shuttle buses to bring you to the different neighborhoods that are venues.  The pictures don't do justice.  Especially these pictures with my little point and shoot camera.