Art Prize

I live on the outskirts of Grand Rapids, Michigan where there is a fun international art competition going on. There are 1,262 artists from 15 countries competing for $449,000, in 159 areas around the city. The winners are going to be decided by the public who can vote thumbs up or down for the different art work.

A friend and I spent the day, Friday walking around the city and checking out many of different art works.
There were pieces that were serious, whimsical things, odd things and a few that made no sense (at least to us), but we had fun although our legs were tired by the end of the day!
I'm sharing a few pictures so you can get an idea of what it was like.

This was where we started our day. I took this picture from the parking ramp so you could see this tall piece. The artist who made this one is living on top of it. He arrived on September 23 and will stay up there until October 6, when he will be jumping from it. Yes - I thought this one was a little odd!

Grand Rapids is known as the Furniture City because of all the furniture it made in the 1900's. This table and chair is titled "The Furniture City sets the Table for the World of Art". It's hard to see the size of it on this picture, but it is set on top of a bridge and is 28 by 30 feet. It's even painted underneath because you can see that part when you walk under it on the bridge.


This is the same table and chairs, seen at night. Everything is lit at night for a whole new look. I got this photo from my friend Kim, at Scattered Stones who enjoyed an evening look at the art. Thanks Kim!

This is a close up of a bench, that is made of many different types of wood and was really beautiful.

This piece is called "Wind Dancer" and moves freely with any little breeze.

I don't know the name of this one, but it's about 12 feet tall and was very intricately carved.

This picture doesn't do this one justice. This large mural was made up of numerous small pictures. There was a little girl you could find in several places in the mural.

Another neat sculpture.

This one is made of lots of different things. Recycling at it's best! There are ski's, headlights, tail lights and several other things in it.

This tribute to 9/11 was painted on the hood of a truck.

This is "The Grand Dancers". It is in the middle of the Grand River and it moves and spins in the wind.

This one is called "Stomp". It's about 16 feet tall.

Look at this giant bench! My friend Lori looks like a kid sitting on it!

Another unique one. This is the Beerhorst Family Wonder Wagon. It looks like an old gypsy wagon. It was covered with different things on the outside and had paintings inside.

The kids were enjoying this one. Vincent VanRat is the title of this one - and he is working on a masterpiece! After we were there, they let kids paint him, so by evening he was multi-colored.

This is "Car Chase". It's an old Hudsen, being chased by some flying white things! There was crumbled asphalt around it to make it look like it crashed into the parking lot.

I though this was pretty cute. It's called "Let Treedom Ring". Each tree in this ring, had arms and was wearing a hat or doing something. The center one is spinning a hula hoop!

This moose was amazing. He is made of nails!

Here is a favorite. This is "Nessie", Grand Rapids own Loch Ness Monster.

This one was getting a lot of attention too. This isn't a statue - it's a man pretending to be a statue. He scared several people while we were there. He would stand completely still and then wink or suddenly move which was pretty surprising to people!

This is the first year this was done, but it's gotten such a good response that they say it will be back. We certainly had fun!