Artprize

Have you heard about Artprize?

If you live here in Grand Rapids then you can't help but hear about it - but for those of you all over the country (and world!) I'm curious if you've heard about this interesting event that's in it's second year.

According to the Artprize website...

About ArtPrize®
Designed as a very different art competition, the goal is for the general public and artists to collide, exchange ideas and come away changed.

2010 in brief

Grand Rapids, MI USA
September 22 - October 10

Part arts festival, part social experiment--this international contest is decided solely by public vote.

$449,000 prize ($250,000 to 1st place)

Top 10 entries receive a prize

Artists can submit one entry

Property in downtown Grand Rapids can be a venue

Venues choose the artists they exhibit

Anyone attending the event can vote

Winner is determined by public vote

Artprize is fascintating to me on so many levels.  Fascinating because it's having such a huge economic impact on downtown Grand Rapids, fasicnating because it's exposing an entire community to art, and fascinating because social media is a core component to its very being.  It's pretty exciting.

Throughout the city there are orange venue signs everywhere you look - and hundreds of businesses and other locations are hosting artists and their pieces. 

(I asked Travis to strike an "Artpize-type pose" and this (above) is what he came up with!

We're in the second week of Artprize right now, and we were downtown last night looking at some of the Top Ten pieces.  They really run the gamut of visual and performance art pieces. 

(You can read about the Top Ten in detail, with all the artist info, here)

This piece may look like a painting from afar, but it is made entirely of mosaic stained glass...

This huge penny is made entirely of pennies... (check out the little boy's smile as he's posing for a photo!)

This is painted on transparent sheets of plastic and hung in a clear display box.  The photos don't do it justice.  Really, really interesting...

And this huge drawing was done entirely in pencil.  Absolutely amazing...

If you're in or close to Michigan, I encourage you to come check out Artprize now, or in the future.  Voting closed for this year's Top Ten on Wednesday night (in fact, by the time this posts, they will have already announced the winner) but the art will remain all over town until October 10. 

It will be interesting to see how the contest evolves as time goes by, and the project is certainly not without some flaws, but the most important thing in my eyes is the 100's of 1,000's of people that are getting out there and looking at art, having an opinion about it, and talking about it with their kids.  For that reason alone, maybe every city should have an Artprize...

http://www.artprize.org/

A Postcard Project

Hubs and I traveled to the east side of Michigan this weekend (we live on the west) and spent some time with my parents - whom I haven't really seen since the holidays.  While we were there, I cleaned out a closet in my old bedroom - finding all kinds of things to donate, keep, throw away, and laugh at!

I also came across this box.  Have any idea what could be inside it?

It was filled with... postcards!  You see, my Grandmother got me started collecting postcards at a young age.  She would send me a postcard wherever she went, and collect art postcards for me to keep.  I hadn't forgotten about these postcards by any means, but I hadn't thought about them for a long time.  You know, out of sight out of mind?

My Grandmother passed away when I was 14, shortly after my parents, brother and I moved from the UK to the US.  She sent me and collected for me postcards up until she died, but with less frequency as she and I both got older.

Looking through all of these postcards brings back such lovely memories of her, and of my time growing up in England as well.  Care to look into the postcard box with me?

There are photo postcards from places in England my Grandma visited...

And some beautiful art cards that tell stories...

Check out the year!  I was 2 when this was mailed.

I love these postcards - they are classic tourist.  Classic English tourist at that.  So much fun!

There's an entire set of Beatrix Potter illustrated cards...

I've always liked the Victoria and Muskie postcard.  My Grandma always called me her "pet" as you can see here...

Classic Winnie the Pooh illustrations...

More illustrations.  Both my Mum and I have always loved the Flower Fairies (right).

And these fairytale postcards are lovely, too.

Some of her postcards talked about her trips, some had just a sentence or two asking how I was doing, and some were just blank or said "for your collection" on them.

I brought the postcard box back home with me - and am determining its future.  My initial thought is that I need some kind of archival album for them - some are already fading and yellowing.  Anyone have any recommendations?

And then, since some of them are just too pretty to be shut up in a book, I am trying to decide what else I can do with them?  Nothing that will cause any damage to them, or permanently cover up either side of course.  I am thinking maybe matting and framing some of them?

Any ideas?

It's been waaaay too long!

I'm back! It's been far too long, I know. The good news is that I've wrapped up some big projects and time-consuming commitments and am ready to take some time for me - and some time for my poor neglected blog!

I look forward to getting you all up to speed on projects I've been working on, and projects that are coming up soon. I'm also going to be continuing to play around with the format of this blog. I'm much happier with a three column template - but as my mother noted (and mother's are *almost* always right - it feels a lot less intimate now... and I don't want that!)

So thank you for hanging in there with me while I've been gone, and for continuing to be patient as I play around with formatting. I appreciate all of your comments, e-mails, and visits so much!

I'm doing a lot of teaching this summer, and am very much looking forward to it. This afternoon I taught my first of a series of art projects based on picture books to a mixed age group of elementary students. Today's project was based on The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle, and was based on a lesson from Art Projects for Kids.

Children drew eight lines of any length in the middle of their paper with a pencil, then joined the tops and bottoms of the lines to create a caterpillar body. They then added a head, tail and some feet.


Then they went over all of their pencil lines with a dark crayon...

Then they painted with watercolors, experimenting with using different amounts of water and paint to create lighter and dark shades. They were encouraged to leave no white space (some of them did this, some did not) and create a really colorful piece. We discussed the way that the crayon resisted the watercolor paints, and showed through even when painted over.




Here are some of the finished products...


i


It's been awhile since I taught, so this was a bit of a brush up lesson for me. I wasn't thrilled with using palette watercolors - I much prefer liquid - but they are much more expensive. I would also prefer a heavier paper - so the next time we do watercolors I will splurge on some watercolor paper that can handle the moisture a little bit better.

Working in nonprofit you work with what you have - and this is what I had. I think the students did a nice job on this project, and I can't wait to work with them some more!

Jewelry & Fashion Art

I am absolutely *swimming* in dance recital costumes right now! There are yards of tulle, satin, and bunches of silk flowers all over my house!

I'm spending every evening cutting and pinning tutus in preparation for a big sewing session with Mum this weekend, and my bff Heather is slaving away cutting hundreds and hundreds of flower petals out of fabric during the daytime...

Phew!

I'll provide a dance costume sneak peak over the weekend, but for now I'm thinking ahead to summertime and a super fun class I'll be teaching at the YMCA called "Jewelry and Fashion Art." It's geared towards young ladies in upper elementary school - middle school, and I'm teaching it with another gal.

My co-instructor is handling the jewelry projects, since jewelry-making is certainly not an area of my expertise, and I'm handling the rest. We don't have access to sewing machines, so everything we do that involves sewing will be hand-sewn.

The focus is definitely on accessories and jewelry, we're not really delving into clothes without a machine to use...

I'm thinking things like this (click on photos to link to tutorial / site)

or maybe a TOTE BAG?

So here's where you can help me out! The class is meeting weekly all summer, so I need LOTS or project ideas! So go ahead and channel your inner-pre-teen-diva-self and leave me a comment or link with a project idea - or e-mail me photos - and share the fashion and jewelry art love! THANKS!

Make Something Cool Every Day in April - Day 2

I subbed for one of my art instructors at the YMCA last night, and while I wasn't responsible for the project plans themselves, I had the privilege of creating them with the students. My camera battery died, of course, during the classes - so I don't have any photos of the kids in action, but here are some photos of the outcomes...

Easter chicks in eggs, by the Kindergarten Explore Art class. They cut their eggs open and I attached them with a brass fastener so that the egg would open and close.

This was actually their project from the week before with another instructor, but they were just so cute and vibrant I had to post it as well. I love projects including kids' hands - even if they ARE a tad messy!


The youth Multi Media Art class worked on abstract circle drawings using sharpie markers - another of my favorite things for kids to use.

Today I'll be "making something cool" with some kids from a local elementary school, and stopping by the Cook Library Center to "make something cool" with them as well. My camera battery is fully charged - so check back later this afternoon for "Make something cool every day in April" DAY THREE!

Kid Art

I guested in Miss Heather's school-age child care class on Friday. I had to think carefully about the project I chose to do with them because it was a mixed age group of kinder-5th grade. I had discovered Kathy Barbro's site "Art Projects for Kids" a year or so ago when I was teaching preschool and kinder art, so I turned to her site and settled on her Van Gogh Sunflowers project.

Here are our results!
















After everyone was done with their project (it took the children anywhere from a half hour to almost two hours! They were so focused!) we finished up by planting our own sunflowers in mini-pots. It was a fun way to end the activity.



I had a great time working with the kids. Although I don't think I would ever have the patience to work with kids every day, I do miss teaching. I'll be subbing for a couple of art classes at the Visser Y next month, so stay tuned for that!