ArtPrize 2010

There are big things going on in Grand Rapids! It's the second annual Artprize competion. Grand Rapids Artprize brings artists from all over the world to be part of a public vote for a huge prize.
With a first prize of $250,000, more than 17,000 artists and 192 venues, the city is packed with art; on the sidewalks, in restaurants, hotels, parks, on the bridges and along the river! It's an amazing thing to see and people are coming from all over to see the art and to vote for their favorite.
My sister Terri and I spent the day on Thursday wandering around the city. We saw so many things and I'm going to share a few of our favorites, along with a few things that we didn't care for.

A spun glass exhibit.

I don't know what these are called but I thought they were pretty cool.

This is not what I consider art, but it made me laugh. This is an outfit to prevent social interaction. The hood makes you look straight ahead and not talk to anyone. I told Terri we should get one for her, because we always tease her that wherever she goes, she finds someone to talk to - and she talks a lot!

This was an exhibit on adoption, featuring these kids that were adopted here in the US and internationally.

This exhibit was so fun! There were all these tubes hanging down and when you walked through them, they made a variety of musical sounds. Jean Stauffer - I thought of Austin and how much he would have loved this one.

Does this look like art to you? We thought it looked like someone was cleaning their office, but I guess everyone has different tastes.

This one is made of 10,000 bars of Neutrogena soap. It smelled so good in this room!

Even the local news trucks are getting into the competition.

This exhibit is called Elephant Walk and is next to the Children's Museum. Their heads bob when the wind blows.

We liked this dragon.

This was one of our favorites. It's Martin Luther King; past, present and future. Here's the amazing part of it - it's made of Rubik's cubes; 4282 of them to be exact!

Here is a closeup of it. I can't imagine turning all those cubes to get the colors right and figuring out where each color should go.

This mosaic frog is reading the Lily Pad Daily.

This one isn't exciting to look at but so fun to see. When people walk up or wave their hands by the sensor, different chords would play. We saw a little boy having fun jumping up and down with a big smile on his face, listening to the music he was making.

This picture doesn't do this justice. There are all kinds of animals carved out of the roots - an eagle at the top, a turtle at the bottom, fish swimming out, a toucan, squirrels and foxes. It was really well done.

One man painted pianos and set them all over the city, so people could play on the streets. I played this one and we heard a few others as we walked.

This entire family of lions was made of nails.

Here is a closeup, so you can see the details.

Another neat dragon.

This is Parsifal, the steam pig. The idea was taken from a book by Jules Verne. Can you believe the size of it?

We had a great time and are already looking forward to next year!

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!