Day 3 of our visit to Grand Rapids' Art Prize began with a trip out to the Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park. Last year we drove up there for just the Art Prize entries, but with our reciprocal membership (thanks to our Chicago Botanic Gardens membership) we were able to tour the Gardens as well for no additional charge.
The pieces at the Gardens were fantastic. The above piece, Watching, is on the 3D short list, and was quite impressive. You know who wasn't impressed? My daughter. She cried and whined through the entire exhibit. One of the security guards was kind enough to let her use her sippy cup to help calm her down. Having a crabby kid in an exhibition of glass pieces is a recipe for disaster. Needless to say, even though there were a number of wonderful pieces that we voted for, it was hard to enjoy the experience!
This is what my daughter liked at the Gardens - the water play area at the Children's Garden. Literally, this was the only part of the visit that she when she was remotely pleasant. So, we picked up lunch and took an afternoon break at Auntie's house.
In the evening, we headed up to the Monroe North neighborhood to some venues we had never hit before. Our first stop was Yoga Heat, and yes, it was hot in there. We moved on to the Boardwalk GR Condominiums, which was full of art. We saw some great stuff, including Circulation (above), as well as my pick for the WORST piece of art so far. Worse than Creepy Jesus. The ten-year-old girl walking around along with us said that she could have done that piece. I won't name it out of respect for the artist, but child please.
Sunflower for Hank (seen in the somewhat lousy photo above) took over 300 hours to create. The WORST piece looks like it took 90 seconds to - ahem - create. By the way, Sunflower for Hank is made of duct tape.
We then took a walk over to Canal Street Park and the Sixth Street Bridge Park. It was getting dark by this point, so my photos don't do the art there any justice.
I happen to know that using old tires as planters is really hot right now. However, that really doesn't have much to do with this piece.
Finally, we hit a recommended venue, the Monroe Community Church. I can't give anything but high praise for the venue. The art was outstanding, they had a kids' coloring table, and I finally found my favorite piece of the week so far!
Again, the photo doesn't do the piece any justice! This is Moses 1,2,3 by Paris Tavonatti-Wartick. Often times religious art can be so overt, and even garish (Creepy Jesus). This piece makes a statement so quietly, yet so clearly. I have such a tough time with religious pieces, as religion is very private to me. Yet this is my favorite religious piece of any Art Prize I have ever visited.
As much as I'd like to get into more detail, I'm being screamed at by a 2-year-old. On to Center City for a busy weekend of art viewing!
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