Love Thursday: Art Prize

It has been so so fun this week to go walk around downtown to see the art on display for ArtPrize. Tonight, I'm going with my friend Deirdre. It has been too long for one of those escapades, I tell ya'. This is some of what John & I saw Tuesday night.

Young Kim made his piece, as last year, out of salt and red clay and, as you can imagine, is very fragile.

Salt & Earth, Young Kim

This piece was a very large pencil drawing by an artist who has drawn close to 85,000 people in the last 18 years.

Calvary, 1921, Chris LaPorte

This artist was inspired by the incongruent quality of dreams and the idea that we are constantly at work trying to unlock and bury, find and lose pieces of ourselves and our histories:

Dreamscape, Kathy Stecko

In this piece, which consists of 500 blown glass river stones, the artist focused on the interaction between humanity and the natural environment using natural textures as a metaphor for nature's chaotic beauty.

River of Light, Joel O'Dorisio

We loved talking to the artist who created this giant penny out of 86,000 pennies. She came from the Dominican Republic 14 years ago and loves it in the US! She said the only way she could save money was to convert it to pennies!

"Helping Mom One Penny at a Time", Wander Martich

So Much to See

It's hard to take it all in, but I'll keep blogging slowly along! We went into the Cathedral Square Exhibition Center and saw the piece of a friend of a friend of a friend. With my 50mm lens, I could only get the middle of each painting.


Triptych Meditations by Linda Litteral

We saw this one nearby and John overheard the artist say she paints mostly food. Lately, she has been painting mostly cinnamon rolls.


All American Meal by Beth Jacobsen

We later walked over to the BOB and loved looking at this one - actually, I loved taking John's picture in front of it because it looked like he was looking for his way out of the woods.


See the Forest Through the Trees by Jacqueline Gilmore

At the Moment, Nothing Eclipses ArtPrize

"Balloon Chain" off of the Blue Bridge adds to the festive atmosphere

This past Saturday evening, John & I headed downtown to take in more of the art on display from around the world. We started at Cathedral Square Exhibition Center and saw some amazing outdoor sculptures:

"Axis-Mundi"

This next piece moves in the wind and when I got home and looked at it closer...



I realized it was a mother and baby...


Sure enough, it is called "Birth's Embrace."

Hope Rising

Yesterday, Pastor Amy interviewed Lynelle Shooks whose photography of the people in the Dominican Republic is installed in our church for ArtPrize. She talked about "Hope Rising", a program of Worldwide Christian Schools and Christian Reformed World Missions which seeks to bring hope to people there.

Pastor Amy read from the book of Lamentations (3:20-24). We have hope because of what God has done for us and we wait for Him.

20 I well remember them,
and my soul is downcast within me.

21 Yet this I call to mind
and therefore I have hope:

22 Because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed,
for his compassions never fail.

23 They are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.

24 I say to myself, "The LORD is my portion;
therefore I will wait for him."

ArtPrize 2010: Floaty Things

Last evening, John & I had a little time to walk around downtown to see some of the ArtPrize exhibits. One of my favorites - and I could have spent much more time photographing it - was the Lure/Forest exhibit by Beili Liu.

This piece is made of thousands of hand-spiraled coils of red thread hung from the ceiling and is based on the ancient Chinese legend of the red thread. You can read more about it here.

Another piece I photographed last evening was "There is Always a Glass Full of Sky to Soar" by Micaela Vivero which is made of 100 forms made out of copper wire that resemble birds, dolphins and airplanes.

It looks like I must have been drawn to floating art last night! Both of these pieces were at the UICA venues - one on Sheldon and one on Fulton.

Flash Back Friday 174

Maria & Bridget, 1998

Love Thursday

Well, I haven't had the time to post here for a few days so I'll make up for it with a mega-post about what I've been busy with! We have had ArtPrize installation and events at our church for the past few days. It's all the buzz here in Grand Rapids! 1713 artists in 192 venues.

And here are seven of the seventeen pieces installed at MCC for ArtPrize 2010:


Stephen Huyser-Honig, "Grand Rapids Gigarama"


Beth Thompson, "Creation"


Julie Quinn, "Revelation Song"


Lucia O'Reilly, "Hard Passages"


Gypsy Schindler, "Deep Roots"


"Heading for Shelter" by Corey West who lives in California and couldn't come this year. (she showed a piece at MCC last year though and I met her then)


Bill Vriesema, "Shimmering Stones"

ArtPrize 2010

One of the things that makes Grand Rapids one of the Coolest Cities to live in is Artprize. This is the second year of Artprize and our church, Monroe Community Church, is once again a venue. Many of us spent the whole day this past Saturday helping the artists whose work we are showing set up. So exciting!

I took this from up in the lift.

Yesterday in church, Pastor Henry interviewed Brian Whitfield during church and talked with him about his Artprize piece, "Midnight Sunday Morning." He talked about John 17:6-18 where Jesus prayed for his disciples to be in the world, not of the world. Brian's piece, influence by Picasso's cubism, shows images of jazz musicians in a Saturday night club morphing into singers in church on Sunday morning. The line does not always seem clear between the two.

Incidentally, Brian is the graphic designer behind the coolest cities logo! Grand Rapids really is one of these - I wasn't making it up!

Over the next few weeks, I'll feature more of the work we are showing at MCC.

Flash Back Friday 173

Edward, Maria & Bridget, Ashcroft, CO, 2002

Love Thursday

I love to pick Bridget & Jessica up from school every day!

Smells Like Fall

Yesterday, I made these and they are amazing!!

Pumpkin Bars

Beat together 2 C winter squash or pumpkin (cooked, puree’d, or in my case canned), 1 1/2 C sugar, 3/4 C oil, 4 eggs, 1 tsp vanilla, and 1/2 tsp salt. Then, mix in 1 C flour, 1 C whole wheat flour, 2 tsp baking powder, 1 tsp cinnamon. Pour into a greased 11×17 inch jelly pan. Bake at 350F for 25-30 minutes.

September Skies

The skies have been so gorgeous in West Michigan lately. i mean really. One evening, I was taking a walk and they reminded me of a Lydia Larson old painting, so I had to take some photos to show her.



This was taken through the window of a moving car and shows that the sky makes even those ugly power transformers look beautiful.



I missed a lot of beautiful ones and today, we just have plain blue. Poor us.

Morning Sunshine

Flash Back Friday 172

Edward, 1995

Thanks to Bridget for picking this one out!