artprize Archives - Colleen Kole

Excitement is building. Openings for the venues are being announced. Facebook announcements are the buzz. Installations are being created on site. The HUB opens on Saturday. The artists take a collective sigh, breathe deeply and some days think-again? Of days standing on their feet, greeting hundreds, if not thousands of people, looking at art.

Women’s City Club venue for Artprize 2015

Ten Reasons I Love Artprize

People who would not ordinarily view art venture outside their comfort zone and enjoy the experience. And come to the event multiple times. New people see art for the first time. There are 1551 entries in 162 venues.
As an artist, I participate in this event with 1740 artists. It’s the world’s largest art competition.
Meeting new friends and seeing old friends. It’s a great time to catch up with my own tribe.
Grand Rapids swells to capacity and people get to visit our wonderful city. People talk about art for 3 solid weeks. Beginning September 23rd.
There is always controversy, discussion and growth among the local and global art scene regarding this event. Over 720,000 $ is awarded in grants and awards.
The newspaper is full of art of 3 weeks. You read about it, talk about it and see art.
The dedication of thousands of volunteers and paid employees coming together to make this a great event is inspiring. People working hard for art.
ARTPRIZE 7 is a free event and accessible to all. It is described as :

ArtPrize is a radically open international art competition decided by public vote and expert jury that takes place each fall in Grand Rapids

For 19 days, art entries from all over the world cover three square miles of downtown Grand Rapids, Michigan—and it’s all free and open to the public.
The public votes. The jurors vote. Separately. So, again, lots of time and energy to debate the publics votes versus the jurors votes. 720, 000 $ of prize money and grants awarded this year.
This is the artists ‘ time to be seen. I just read a statistic that over 400,000 people view a venue’s online profile. Last year the venue that I have been invited to participate in, the Women’s City Club had an attendance of 27,400 people.I am so excited and honored to be a part of art history in the making. And I got excited just by writing this. Now how can I get out of that jury duty I have starting September 21st….? Shucks but I will see art no matter what! And interact with people viewing my piece, Time Fragments#6.

Time Fragments #6, details
©Colleen Kole, 2015

I think for a long time I was worried about too many silly things. The more I read online about what to write and what not to write if you were an artist , the more I just became overwhelmed and anxious when I sat down to write. Here’s the run-on sentences in my brain:

Blogs are dead. So why write them then? I still eagerly watch each day for my favorite writers or friends, so why wouldn’t others?
I don’t have my MFA so I am not qualified to write a blog post. Yes, they do have an edge but writing is a lot of “practice makes perfect”.
Nothing I say is really interesting or unique. Well it is unique to me.
You need to brand yourself so don’t align yourself with something controversial. Controversial topics are fun to discuss in person and sometimes get lost in a short email or blogpost so hard to defend . I get this point.
Along similiar lines, don’t align yourself with one thing or person. Be your own person. Authentic- be authentic.
I can’t or don’t want to show my work right now. Sometimes true but lots goes on in my town/life that is art related I can share with others.
You need tutorials. Write tutorials. Not opposed to sharing what I know. So I could write a tutorial.
I need a workshop to learn to write. My default argument for all things hard in my life.
I take lousy pictures.
I haven’t made as much work as others have.

So, the run-on in my brain could continue forever. Or I could quit hiding out. I could quit comparing myself to others. I could grab a little confidence. Risk a little skin and get to work and have some fun meeting up with my friends again.

How the heck have you been?

On an art related note, I will be at Artprize this year again. This year I will be in a different venue , the Women’s City Club showing my piece called Time Fragments #6 .