After three (long) weeks, too much of which i spent walking all over town, ArtPrize officially ended today. I love ArtPrize - mostly i love the excitement of finding something really amazing that i love, but i also kind of enjoy the joy of something just remarkably terrible. But by the end of it, when i'm down to only 10 more places left to see (out of 166), it becomes a bit of a chore, and yes i KNOW i could just quit because nobody else actually cares, but i'm so close. So anyhow, yesterday Beth and i both went to our last venue together, which just happened to be a frozen yogurt place, so we celebrated finishing with a treat.
This artist interviewed 20 kids and asked them what they wanted to be when they grew up and then painted them doing that. The little girl in the middle wants to be a motivational speaker, which is just the best. All of the paintings were just beautiful.
This is the solar system, with each of the planets painted to comparative size. Which is cool, but the paintings themselves were just really pretty
too.
Okay, so this guy drew the bees, crows, and goats on white paper, and they're fine, but as soon as you make it negative-ed they're amazing. And i don't even know how you figure out how to do that.
This series. Katrina and i were both like, "Hm. Those are interesting photographs," and then started walking away. And Beth was like, "Those are painted with watercolor!" And dude. They are amazing.
This is embroidery. Embroidery. It looks like a painting, and i'm sure most people were just like, "Cool painting of a panther." But WOW.
There isn't really anything particularly special about these, except that they were the first thing i saw this year that i really liked, and by the end, i still think it's just good.
This is made of porcelain. I can't even imagine how hard it was to make. But it's just really, really pretty. And it had meaning and blah blah blah. :)
This was actually the thing i would probably have chosen to win the grand prize this year. It's five life-sized wooden "Champions" - carved insanely detailed and lifelike. Floyd Mayweather has the vein showing in his temple. And the crazy wrestler dude has tiny braids intricately carved in his hair. AND the artist has only been carving anything for 10 years, and these are the first people he's ever carved. Amazing.
This is just a gorgeous wooden dress.
And this is a gorgeous cloth dress.
"Dare to Dream Big." This is absolutely what cats think they look like. It's cute and really well made.
And finally, this is just really cool both by day and by night (it lights up in different colors at night). It's interesting and different and i just liked it.
These were pretty cool - by day they're reflective and by night they light up, and they make noise. The really cool thing about them was that as you walk, they change colors - not if you're standing still. Only as you move. So yeah. Interesting. But....
This i actually really liked. AND it won for its category. So yay! They're all different pieces of clothes, and each one has a snippet of overheard conversation on it. My favorite is, "Oh you said far? I thought you were saying fire with a southern accent."
What does this mean? I don't know. But it's kind of fun.
I'm not fully sure what makes this an installation, but since i'm hard-up for candidates, i guess i'm glad it is. The photographs are, well, photographs, and then the building behind it is drawn in pencil directly onto the wall.
This guy's been doing the same thing for several years now, so it's not particularly surprising or innovative, but it IS cute and fun and makes us all stop every time we walk by (because he keeps adding new ones) and it makes us happy. So sure. It's in the top 5 in this category.
I'm sort of torn on this one. I like it? It's pretty. But most years it would be something that i'd be like, "I like that!" and then not put in my list of favorites because it would have more competition.
We actually went to most of the ArtPrize movies this year. This one - "Love, Gilda" - was our first one and also turned out to be the best one.
Aaaaand i have no idea why Blogger has suddenly decided it hates me, but FINE. I'll just put my last bit all the way down here. The machine - i wouldn't have included it, except Juanito loved it and the kids all enjoyed it, so. And the guy - he was really well done, and fun, and he put a lot of time into walking around downtown (which totally paid off for him, because he won his category). So.
Today i would have completely collapsed on the couch and not moved all day, but i had to bring Katrina to her youth group's get-together, so instead i dropped her off and then sat at McD's and ate some fries and finished one book and started the next. And THEN we came home and collapsed - or rather, i collapsed and read while Katrina worked and worked on homework.
SO. I always disagree with the public (and the jury) about what the actual best things were - and i fully admit that this is only my opinion and everyone might hate what i love - but i present here what i would have put in the top of each category.
2-D
This had by far the largest number of favorite things, so i'm doing 7 instead of 5. Because it's my blog and i get to make the rules.
This artist interviewed 20 kids and asked them what they wanted to be when they grew up and then painted them doing that. The little girl in the middle wants to be a motivational speaker, which is just the best. All of the paintings were just beautiful.
This is the solar system, with each of the planets painted to comparative size. Which is cool, but the paintings themselves were just really pretty
too.
Okay, so this guy drew the bees, crows, and goats on white paper, and they're fine, but as soon as you make it negative-ed they're amazing. And i don't even know how you figure out how to do that.
This series. Katrina and i were both like, "Hm. Those are interesting photographs," and then started walking away. And Beth was like, "Those are painted with watercolor!" And dude. They are amazing.
This is embroidery. Embroidery. It looks like a painting, and i'm sure most people were just like, "Cool painting of a panther." But WOW.
There isn't really anything particularly special about these, except that they were the first thing i saw this year that i really liked, and by the end, i still think it's just good.
I saw this on almost the last day. It's pencil and really, really detailed and just ... beautiful.
3D
I'm a little bit surprised at how many 3D things i really liked this year. Or rather - there weren't a LOT of things i really liked, but the things i did like, i really liked. And since there are 6 of them, i'm just leaving it at 6.
This is made of porcelain. I can't even imagine how hard it was to make. But it's just really, really pretty. And it had meaning and blah blah blah. :)
This was actually the thing i would probably have chosen to win the grand prize this year. It's five life-sized wooden "Champions" - carved insanely detailed and lifelike. Floyd Mayweather has the vein showing in his temple. And the crazy wrestler dude has tiny braids intricately carved in his hair. AND the artist has only been carving anything for 10 years, and these are the first people he's ever carved. Amazing.
This is just a gorgeous wooden dress.
And this is a gorgeous cloth dress.
"Dare to Dream Big." This is absolutely what cats think they look like. It's cute and really well made.
And finally, this is just really cool both by day and by night (it lights up in different colors at night). It's interesting and different and i just liked it.
Installation
Okay, so i don't know who decides what's an installation and what's just 3D or 2D, so i'm just going by what the official ArtPrize classification was. And honestly, there's only a few of these that i actually really, really like, and in a good year, some of these would definitely not have made the grade.
These were pretty cool - by day they're reflective and by night they light up, and they make noise. The really cool thing about them was that as you walk, they change colors - not if you're standing still. Only as you move. So yeah. Interesting. But....
This i actually really liked. AND it won for its category. So yay! They're all different pieces of clothes, and each one has a snippet of overheard conversation on it. My favorite is, "Oh you said far? I thought you were saying fire with a southern accent."
What does this mean? I don't know. But it's kind of fun.
I'm not fully sure what makes this an installation, but since i'm hard-up for candidates, i guess i'm glad it is. The photographs are, well, photographs, and then the building behind it is drawn in pencil directly onto the wall.
And this is just kind of fun and happy.
Time-based
Yeah. There's just not much in this category this year.
This guy's been doing the same thing for several years now, so it's not particularly surprising or innovative, but it IS cute and fun and makes us all stop every time we walk by (because he keeps adding new ones) and it makes us happy. So sure. It's in the top 5 in this category.
I'm sort of torn on this one. I like it? It's pretty. But most years it would be something that i'd be like, "I like that!" and then not put in my list of favorites because it would have more competition.
We actually went to most of the ArtPrize movies this year. This one - "Love, Gilda" - was our first one and also turned out to be the best one.
Aaaaand i have no idea why Blogger has suddenly decided it hates me, but FINE. I'll just put my last bit all the way down here. The machine - i wouldn't have included it, except Juanito loved it and the kids all enjoyed it, so. And the guy - he was really well done, and fun, and he put a lot of time into walking around downtown (which totally paid off for him, because he won his category). So.