Ladislav Hanka
Entry: "Biophilic Meditation" (2-D Etching)
Venue: Grand Rapids Art Museum
Ladislav Hanka is proof that awakening yourself to your earthly purpose can be a passionate and fruitful love affair. Though his career started in biology and zoology, he redirected his course to the art world and, 30 years later, is still deeply engrained in his craft.
As an artist, Hanka, who lives in Kalamazoo and has an MFA in printmaking, has studied in Germany, Austria, and the Czech Republic. He was apprentice to an engraver of stamps and currency in Prague, and has been involved in nearly 100 one-man shows. But Hanka credits it all as starting the day he enrolled in his first etching course.
"It was the awakening moment where I knew it was what I was supposed to do," he said. "It's who I am. We have all been born to some purpose on the face of this earth. And one day we wake up to it."
In his work, "Biophilic Meditation," Hanka explores the relationship between humans and nature.
"It's all the things that I spend my days drawing and etching," he said. "It's about all those entities and how lonely we'd be without all those things- just human beings and cockroaches. All that complexity of all that stuff and the beauty of it all."
Though he was involved in ArtPrize last year, Hanka is anticipating seeing "Biophilic Meditation" at the GRAM, and is glad for the opportunity to create something much larger than his usual, modest-in-size etchings.
"It's nice to have a venue to show off more of what I'm capable of," he said. "I've spent 30 years as a professional artist and this is one venue where I can show off what I've learned in those 30 years."
Kate Silvio
Entry: "untitled quilt... second attempt proliferated" (2-D Quilt)
Venue: Women's City Club
Artist Kate Silvio has a track record that would lead anyone to believe she's in love with steel, but her ArtPrize endeavor, "untitled quilt... second attempt proliferated," has changed her momentum.
"I had a show recently in Detroit and everyone expected me to do large-scale steel sculptures," she said. "I started to feel like it was the same thing over and over. I wanted to break out and do something different."
For her 2010 ArtPrize entry, Silvio chose to use rubber, thread, and tacks to form a quilt, representative of where we came from and where we're going — a path that tells of suffocation and strength.
"There is a little bit more chaos in the quilt now than past ones," Silvio said. "It extends more into the environment and it's not so constructed. It's an unraveling of ... us."
Silvio, who moved to Grand Rapids from Detroit about three years ago, has a BFA in sculpture from the College for Creative Studies in Detroit and a MFA in metalsmithing from the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Mich. Her recent commissions include work for The Henry Ford Hospital in West Bloomfield and The Hotel Baronette in Novi.
As an ArtPrize 2009 artist, Silvio created a juxtaposition of steel and felt that focused on contradicting thought processes not only in art, but in life and relationships.
Although she took part in the contest last year, Silvio admits she had mixed feelings about being involved again.
"It's a weird circus of events," she said. "I still feel that way. But I thought, I live here, so why wouldn't I take part?"
To Silvio, ArtPrize is something to immerse yourself into, something she believes the people of Grand Rapids have done.
"People here are open to change and culture and artwork," she said. "People in Grand Rapids are willing to put a lot of time and energy into it; it says a lot about the city."
Mark Rumsey"Baldaquin" features components that are folded as well as sewn and a pattern based on the design of sassafras leaves and trumpet flowers.
"'Baldaquin' means canopy over a sacred site, derived from Baghdad," Rumsey said. "A lot of my work plays on how people over time give words to things they consider divine. I try to make something that is approachable on many levels; people can see it as a visual and as eye candy, and if they want to engage further, they can explore the rationale behind it."
As a community-based artist and activist, Rumsey said that over the past decade his work has come alive. Most of Rumsey's projects follow the folded paper theme, and although there may not be many opportunities for him to exhibit in Grand Rapids, he sees the city's possibilities.
"Grand Rapids is a really interesting place," he said. "It's a place of potential and a place for people who want to make things happen."
Last year, Rumsey exhibited in the atrium of The B.O.B. with his paper installation, "Cloudform0909."
"I'm not holding my breath that I'm going to win," Rumsey said. "It's more about making something that is a unique experience for people to see. If it weren't about that, I would just make things to keep in my house."
Rumsey has a BFA in ceramics and philosophy from GVSU, an MFA in printmaking from Kendall College of Art and Design, and has attended Montana State University and The Ohio State University for graduate studies. In 2009, Rumsey was an Artist-in-Residence at Frans Masereel Centrum, the Flemish Center for Graphic Arts in Belgium.
Melissa Leitch has used her creative talents as costume assistant at the Grand Rapids Ballet Company to turn her ArtPrize entry, "Interactive Ballet," into a reality.
Leitch, who currently lives in Rockford, began her love affair with textiles when she worked in her parents' fabric shop. She became a tailor's apprentice while in high school, but moved on to study life drawing and painting at Aquinas. Still, after years spent raising children and sewing costumes for their school plays, Leitch finds time for her other talents.
"Now, I'm getting into painting more and more and I love the colors and how they change," she said. "I took a landscape class and it amazed me how everyone can look and paint the same thing but each one comes out completely different."
Her ArtPrize work is a testament to more than just her sewing skills. "Interactive Ballet" is a theatre featuring clay puppets that spring to life when a crankshaft is turned. Music plays (a song recorded by Leitch's son) to lend them rhythm, giving the puppets the appearance of live dancers.
The idea for her entry came after Leitch designed jewelry for the GRAM/GRBC Calder Ballet collaboration and after she saw one of Alexander Calder's works.
"This allowed me to delve deeper," she said. "Once I saw Calder's Circus I thought that's what I would like to do for ArtPrize. I made a prototype for my daughter's boyfriend for Christmas, so I've been working on it since December."
Leitch was not involved in ArtPrize last year, but said she enjoyed exploring art around the city during the contest. Her experience and the thrill of being immersed in art last year, led her to become involved in ArtPrize 2010.
And as for her work being shown in one of the Exhibition Centers, "It really inspired me to make my piece better," she said. "If they have faith in me, I thought, I better carry through."
ArtPrize collaborators David Schofield and Ryan Greaves want to know your deepest darkest secret. Not only that, they're asking you to share it with the ArtPrize world through their interactive entry titled "Confess."
The duo, both GVSU graphic design graduates, have created a large-scale white wall with only the word "Confess" upon it. The goal? There will be Sharpies available for you to write down your secret on the wall-anything you wish. Throughout the course of ArtPrize, the wall will transform from crisp white to black. But why are the collaborators confident someone would write a confession for thousands of others to see?
"With social networking on Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace, people are sharing their opinions in status updates, but this is completely anonymous," Greaves said. "It will be interesting. I'm hoping we'll get dark and funny secrets."
Greaves, who works at the UICA, and Schofield, a graphic designer for Visualhero Design Co., also have a design business together called You & I Studio. Working together since before they graduated college, Schofield and Greaves had an entry in ArtPrize 2009 as well. They are anticipating the interaction that will occur with their entry this year.
"With our piece last year, we really liked the participation and letting other people contribute to what we were doing and influence the shape of it," Greaves said. "We wanted to let it go a little more, so this year we tried to find something that we could hand over to the people who see it and share it."
Schofield and Greaves also have been involved in art battles, artist markets, and other art events. But ArtPrize has a particular place at the heart of this collaboration.
"I think it's just a great thing to be a part of," Schofield said. "It was fun last year and it's why I make art. I love doing it."
Kathy Mohl
Entry: "Golden Willows" (2-D Oil Painting)
Venue: Cathedral Square
Imagine standing in front of a landscape painting and being thoroughly pulled into its elements. Suddenly you feel the breeze the artist felt when she painted it and smell the same crisp air. This is the goal of artist Kathy Mohl, whose entry, "Golden Willows," will allow you to see and feel the Bellaire, Mich. location where she created it.
"I like to do a painting that you can almost hear and it takes you to the place," Mohl said. "You get the feeling of texture; I've really pushed the elements with the paint. I could paint that scene a million different ways and I have."
The painting began as a sketch when Mohl traveled to Bellaire with a group of artists who paint on location. Most of Mohl's paintings were created this way, allowing her to capture the essence of feeling and atmosphere.
"I learn so much when I paint on location," she said. "All the answers are right there. It feeds the soul. You lose all sense of time and the experience is burned in your memory. You never forget it."
Mohl, who lives in Caledonia and obtained a BFA from Kent State University, started her career as a graphic designer. Almost a decade passed before she realized her calling was elsewhere.
"I was always a kid who could draw and I never lost my love for that," she said. "I realized graphic design wasn't my passion. I developed a love for landscapes and redirected my energy toward fine art."
Though she was involved in ArtPrize 2009, Mohl is just as excited about becoming part of the buzz and energy the contest creates this year.
"I can't say anything negative about it," she said. "It's something that would be in Chicago or Sydney, Australia and it's happening right here."
