ArtPrize

Every year the city of Grand Rapids is the site of the biggest art competition in the country.  It's going on right now and I have to warn you that I have lots of pictures to share with you.

This year there were 1517 entries, set up at 161 venues, covering 3 square miles.  Artists come from all over the world to take part in this.

It runs from September 19 to October 7, and I've been there 3 times during that period.  It means lots of walking, but it sure is fun!

 

This is one of the outside venues that had a lot of entries.  Look at all the people!

Here's a few of the entries that I liked, that didn't make the top 10.

This was a favorite, especially for the kids.  Each bone was individually crafted and then put together.

 I really like this fountain.  It's called Living Water.

Simply amazing quilts!  This is a set of 4, depicting the 4 seasons.

 

This one was titled "Friends".  It's one that just makes me happy!

This was made of junk.  When the artist pushed a button, the wheel turned and the bells made music.  It was playing Ode to Joy when we were there.

 The Davidson family - made of Harley Davidson pieces.

This was a display of a bunch of little monsters - but they were cute monsters.

This picture was made of dryer lint!  It wasn't colored in any way, just used as it came from the dryer.  It's been purchased by the Ripleys people and will go into one of their museums.

Penguins splashing in the fountains!  This is another favorite.

I thought this was really neat.  The artist took populations of different cities and graphed their population changes over the last 20 years.  He then blew a glass shape to correspond.  They were all hanging in a row and most were pretty stable as you can see by the ones on the side.  The center one is Houston.  Hootin' Anni - thought you would appreciate that!

Nice dragon!

"Impressions"  This is like the toys with the metal pins that you can make impressions with, but on a much larger scale.  There were a brother and sister leaning into the pins from the other side, to make this impression.

You see the mosaic picture on the left.  The close up on the right shows what it's made of - Jelly Bellies!

This wood carving is titled Lifted.  It's from Psalm 40:2 - "He lifted me from the slimy pit, out of the mud and the mire.  He set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand."

This was an old man and woman fishing, made completely of metal.

A bigger than life wooden gnome.

This was made of a whole bunch of framed pictures.   Each had the same picture of a little boy sitting on the bottom, but the background was the different and when it was all put together you could see the picture of the man.

There are so many more pictures I could share, but it would be the longest post ever!

Next week I'll share the top ten and the winner.