ArtPrize 2011 Report

ArtPrize is over ... sigh! "Imelda's Dream II" got a lot of attention and votes from among the 500,000 people who visited Grand Rapids, Michigan during those 19 days. I feel honored to have been one of 1,582 artist participants in this grand scale art event that covered over 3 square miles of the downtown, plus the botanical garden of that city, Miejer's Gardens.

Janice of Good Goods Gallery in Saugatuck hung my entry. I'm grateful that gallery is so generous to me. I was there to hand up tools and help to determine it's levelness by eye. It's surprising how much actual levelness according to a leveling tool can differ from the visual one. It's all relative to the art pieces relationship to the architecture of the building.

Between her expertise and the lighting guy who works for the DeVos Place Convention Center, it was beautifully lit.

 

That walkway was filled with people on the days that I spent with my piece to talk with those who were interested.

Interaction between the artists and viewers is a major goal of this event. Go here to see a video that explains ArtPrize wonderfully well.

I'm Here!

Life has been full of family and friends here at the cottage since we got back from Colorado. Thought I'd better check in with you out in cyberland since I've begun to receive emails enquiring about my well being.  All is well and this next weekend is the last BIG family one of the summer season. When it quiets down here, I'll catch you up with the goings on in my life.

Next week I'll be gearing up for participation in ArtPrize. You may be interested in this article in the Washington Post about the event. I'm pleased to be a part of it again.

More About ArtPrize

The announcement of my ArtPrize entry in the last post may have surprised a number of you ... those of you who remembered reading about an earlier pronouncement that this was my 2011 entry. That it was to be another installation piece featuring an early spring morning in the Smoky Mountains.

I got as far as doing weeks of research about the spring growth at a particular altitude, as well as doing two fabric studies besides the paper one above. My decision to abandon that project for now came before this  second one was finished.

The thought of devoting all my time and attention to just one project for a third year. was overwhelming. I decided that what I really wanted was to be available to spend time, as well as to be available to play with my family and friends this summer.

The mountain project is not dead. Although, I think it will be a good idea if it's done as a commission project, as was "Prairie Performance". Especially since "The Lake" is still not sold even though it has received much acclaim. It's presently hanging in Good Goods Gallery in Saugatuck, Michigan. I'm pleased to be able to visit it there, but I'd rather it find a permanent home either in a business or on the walls of a home that does not have the good fortune of having the view I see literally or figuratively of Lake Michigan.

ArtPrize 2011 Entry

Once again, I'm pleased to announce that I'm an ArtPrize artist and this is my entry ...

"Imelda's Dream II" - 70"x 70"

Some of you may recognize it. The purses give it a new life for its debut in the ArtPrize exhibition. It had been rolled up in storage waiting for a home in a health care setting as a distraction for women waiting for "procedures." That had not happened, so it will once again see the light of day come September 21st. I hope the audience of ArtPrize goers will find it as appealing as do my cyber friends who have left comments on the posts leading up to this reveal.

ArtPrize is a world-wide art exhibition that takes place September 21 thru October 9th. This year's show features 1,582 artists from 36 countries and 43 states who will show their work in 164 venues within three-square miles of downtown Grand Rapids, Michigan. The venue where my entry can be seen is the DeVos Place Convention Center ... the same venue that featured "The Lake" in last years show.

Mountain Sunrise Study #2

The first fabric study* is complete...

17"x 13"

There's a lot about it that I'm not happy with ... mainly that there's too much pastel work.  Working in this small scale I find it difficult to make the fabric patterns and pieces "read" the way I want them to.  Here's a photo taken of it earlier in the process ...

... before I got out the pastels ... before a lot of the middle and fore ground details were added.

Working through this first one has helped me to more clearly see the range of hues that I need to be gathering from my scrap bags.  I'll again be going through those first two that these bits and pieces came from.

Here are the fabric and paper studies together.

I already see changes I want to make to the composition.  There'll be time for another fabric study before we have house guests next week.

*The paper/pastel study is number one.

My Plan for ArtPrize 2011

Since ArtPrize 2010 ended last October, I've been tossing around the idea of creating another BIG installation piece for its next competition/exhibition. The big question in my mind was whether I had the stamina and the desire to put all my efforts into another humongous 9' x 7' art piece.  The answer is YES!

Last week I printed out reference photos and did a lot of cutting and pasting, as well as pastel work to make a paper mock-up of what I have in mind ... the Smoky Mountains on a spring morning.

11" x 8.5"

I love mountains as much as I do Lake Michigan. This one features the Smokies, which is only an hours drive away, but there's a strong influence of the Rocky Mountains in my feeling about doing it. In fact,  quite a few of my reference photos for the perspective of looking down as well as up nearby slopes were taken in Colorado. I've spent the last 20 springs in the Smoky Mountains, so that range is featured in this piece.

Finally, my schedule and studio are clear of other projects and obligations so I began a small fabric study.  I had determined how the composition is to be sectioned for 25 panels on the paper mock-up.

I sketched in the divisions on the army blanket that serves as the bat ... keeping in the spirit of recycling materials for my "ortwork" technique.

I got just so far before I ran out of dark green scraps from the bag on the table.  Another bag was brought in from the garage to dig for and sort out possible bits and pieces to continue with this piece ... and for the next larger study with more details I plan to make before work begins on the BIG one.

There's lots of digging through many big bags in my near future.