It's ArtPrize In The City

“Blessed are the curious, for they shall have adventures.” 
                                                   ~L. Drachman

The 7th year of ArtPrize just began yesterday.  If you never heard of it, it's an art adventure, unlike any other.  This year it will run from September 23 until October 11.  It's held in the city of Grand Rapids, Michigan and artists from all over the world come to participate and to be judged for huge cash awards.  The photo below was a grand prize winner from two years ago.

So what do you think this is?  It's actual a four-part quilt of the Sleeping Bear Dunes in northern Michigan.

Here's a close up of it.  Amazing!  The winner received $200,000.

This is a huge pencil drawing of a Calvary unit from WWI.  

This was another grand prize winner.

I remember the artist for the face shadows was from Japan.  The light in the room was cast just right for the papers to reveal the profile of the person.

These exhibits are held in different venues around the city.  Some are lucky enough to get into the Art Museum or the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum.  Others exhibit their art in restaurants, banks, even bookstores.

And the city comes alive like no other time of the year.  People from all over the world flock to our city to look at and talk about art. 

This was another grand prize winner and she actually drew while the exhibit was going on.  She kept expanding it in height and width.

You can see all the fine details she put into her drawing.

There's a lot of controversy about this exhibit because of the way it's judged, both by the public and by the experts.  Some that you think should win, may not even come close.

I really loved these last two photos, the one above was a painting and the one below was drawn in colored pencils; yet neither were finalist.

Like the saying goes, "art is in the eye of the beholder".  I use to volunteer for the first 5 years, registering voters.  But last year I had my knee replacement surgery on September 9, so there was no way I could see it.  And I won't be able to go this year.  I'll tell you why I can't, next week.