Colors of Community

About a month ago I shared a post about Artprize, which is a huge, city wide art show in Grand Rapids.  It's very popular and has encouraged some smaller art shows in surrounding towns.  A church in our little town has started it's own little art competition, called Colors of Community.  It's  been happening annually for 4 years now.  The artists are all from near our town.  They have divided the art into groups - professional, photographs, 3D - dimensional art, paintings and drawings and then there are children's divisions; 4-8, 9-14, 15-20.  Visitors get a ballot and choose a favorite in each category.  There are also judges choices.
The premise of this art show is this:

"Creativity is a God-given ability to take something ordinary and make it into something special. It is an openess to doing old things, new ways... the creative spirit is part of our heritage as children of the One who created all things.  And nurturing our creativity is part of our responsibility as stewards of God's good gifts."  

Emilie Barnes.

We went to look at all the art this weekend.  It's amazing how creative some people are!  Here's some of the entries.

 This is a pencil sketch.  It's so good - looks like a black and white photo!

This is a painting of a blueberry field near our town.

 This photo was taken 2 years ago - a crazy snowstorm on Halloween.

I like the lighting in this painting.

 This is one of the professional paintings, and it was also entered into Artprize.

This one was done by a 7 year old.  It was inspired by Van Gogh's Starry Night painting.

This is a quilted wall hanging!

A carving - so lifelike!

I really like this one - it's a set of 12 pictures.  The collection is titled 'The 12 Days of Christmas', and each day has a whimsical idea for the day.   These pictures were each drawn during a period when she doing a drawing a day challenge.

Here's one of the pictures from the 12 days.  This one is 4 calling birds!

 This is another one that I really liked.  This is a set of 3 pictures, and each picture is filled with words - in this case John 3:16, 17 and 18.

 Here's all 3.  The first one is  For God, the second  is So Loved, the third - The World.

Here's a closeup of an eye in the second shot!

Here's my favorite!  Bob entered this carving - a Spartan warrior demonstrating the spiritual armour we wear, taken from Ephesians 6: 11-17.
The art is being shown until November 14.  If you live in the area, make sure you stop and check it out.  There is so much more art to be seen than what I shared here.