A little bit of Grand Rapids

While wandering around Grand Rapids, enjoying ArtPrize last week, I took a few pictures of the city to share with you.I'm a country girl at heart, but Grand Rapids is really a beautiful city!

This is the "famous" blue bridge.  It's a pedestrian bridge that crosses the Grand River.  It's well known and gets lots of use.  It was repainted this summer and  there was a lot of talk about what color they should choose.  In the end, they went with the same color it's been for years - blue!

A view from the blue bridge.

 

Here's a shot from the other direction.  The Grand River is the center of the city.

I love all the bridges that cross the river.

 

This is the Amway Grand Hotel. It's located in the center of the city.  It was built in 1913 as the Pantlind hotel, and had fallen into disrepair when the owners of Amway bought it and restored it to it's former glory.

 

The building is beautiful, inside and out, with lots of carvings adorning the exterior and the look of luxury inside.

 

This is another shot of the interior of the hotel.  There have been many famous guests here including many presidents and former presidents, other heads of state and celebrities.


One more thing:

for those who wondered about the winner of ArtPrize - it was this quilt!  

Friday Fun

Here's a few fun pictures for your Friday!

Have a great weekend!

ArtPrize Top 10

On Tuesday, I told you about visiting ArtPrize. Out of 1524 entries, the public has voted out a top ten. Here they are:

This one is 'Taking Flight'.  It's a 13 foot sculpture made of hand woven wire that revolves and is lit from inside with 1024 lights.

This one is 'Tired Pandas'.  It's 7 feet tall and is made from bike tires and inner tubes.

 

Here's a close up, so you can see the tires.

 

This is 'Sleeping Bear Dunes Lakeshore'.  It's 24 feet long!  I wish I could have gotten a close up, because this isn't a painting - it's a quilt!  The tiny pieces that were quilted into this made it just beautiful.
 

This is 'Myth or Logic'.  It's a 14 foot high, 14 foot wide installation of a Griffin.  It's made of pieces of bamboo, suspended on strings. It has a really unique look because it's not a solid piece.  It looked different from every angle.

 

This is 'Uplifting'.  It's a sculpture of Native American dancers that's made to be part of a water feature or part of a fountain.  The sculptor did an amazing job in showing the movement of the muscles in this piece.

This is 'Botanical Exotica' which is a series of huge, hand blown glass flowers. The flowers were very realistic, except for their size!

This piece is 'Dancing with Mother Nature'.  It's cedar driftwood, with pieces that are carved into different animals, fish, birds and a few people.

 

This is 'Earth Giant'.  It's a sculpture made of grapevines and a natural concrete mix.  He is sitting on the side of the Grand River and the string from his fishing pole is in the river.  You can see how big he is in comparison to the sculptor who is sitting on the left side of the picture.

 

This is one of my favorites.  It's called 'Porcelain Vine'.  It looks like a beautiful quilt - but it's carved wood!  When you see it in person, it's hard to believe that it's wood!
 

Here's a close-up, to show you some of the carved details.

 

This is another of my favorites.  It's a series of 3 paintings named 'Polar Express'.  These paintings are so realistic!  When we were looking at it, there was a man arguing with his wife because he thought they were photos!

And that's the top ten!  The winner will be announced Friday night.