Sept. 13, 2022 GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – Grand Rapids Community College’s Paul Collins Art Gallery is hosting three ArtPrize entries, showcasing digital animation, pen and ink technique and acrylic painting.
ArtPrize 2022 runs from Sept. 15 to Oct. 2 and features 750 entries in the interactive art competition.
The Collins Art Gallery is found on the fourth floor of Raleigh J. Finkelstein Hall, 143 Bostwick Ave. NE. From Sept. 15 to Oct. 2, the gallery will be open from 1-8 p.m. Monday through Friday, noon to 8 p.m. Saturday, and noon to 6 p.m. on Sunday.
Guests visiting during the weekend should enter through the doors on the south end of Finkelstein Hall Level G2, near the iconic lion fountain, or through the skywalk connected to Parking Ramp A. Signs or staff will direct you to the gallery.
The entries include “Inexcusable,” which features pen-and-ink drawings by teacher Ginger Creasy in collaboration with student Jessica Newell, which explores the intricacies of nature.
“I am collaborating with one of my art students with the thought of creation and its wonderful intricacies from the largest mammal, hidden in the designs of the ocean, to the smallest of creation, and the complicating designs of organisms,” wrote Creasy, of Twin Lake, Mich., in her artist’s statement.
“This is really a hidden adventure for all to enjoy. ‘Inexcusable’ is what we think about when we see the complicating designs of what seem simple. Nothing in nature is simple! For instance, why don't ducks’ or geese, or even penguins’ feet freeze? DESIGN! You will find this somewhere in my art piece.”
Creasy, who is entering ArtPrize for the eleventh time, said there is a story behind everything I chose to put into this piece. Newell’s piece, although separate, relates also to creation, particularly the golden ratio which describes predictable patterns on everything from atoms to huge stars in the sky.”
“Derivations of a Gothic Arch Part 2” is a digital animation by Morehead State University instructor Gary Mesa-Gaido.
The six-minute digital animation with sound moves through multiple iterations of a gothic arch being pushed and pulled in a multitude of directions and shapes that all tie back to the gothic architectural element of the arch.
Mesa-Gaido has been an artist for more than 30 years, and his work has been displayed in international, national, regional and state-juried and invitational exhibits. His pieces have been viewed at diverse venues, including the Abraham Lubelski Gallery in New York, the Museo ItaloAmericano in San Francisco, and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Cleveland, plus museums and galleries across the United States.
“Landscapes in my mind’s eye,” is an acrylic-on-canvas piece by Seongbae Cho, was inspired by a summer trip to Grand Teton and Yellowstone National parks. He said the title comes from the words of Ansel Adams
My title for his entry was inspired by acclaimed landscape photographer Ansel Adams.
“I think the word, ‘mind’s eye’ would show the meaning of my paintings,” he said in his artist’s description. “I traveled to Grand Teton and Yellowstone National parks last summer. I stayed in the park and explored great nature. I saw huge mountains, river, falls, geysers, hot springs, and wild animals. I felt something beautifully and imagined I lived in paradise. I am seeking to capture the inherent beauty in nature in my artwork.”
Cho was born in Seoul, South Korea expresses the beauty he sees with various methods; abstract landscape paintings, representative landscape paintings, and digital images that he produces with a computer program.
Since 2010, he had five solo exhibitions and has taken part in several group shows in South Korea. He also showed his digital paintings at the Muskegon Museum of Art and at the ArtPrize in 2021.
GRCC student Christina Hindley has an entry nearby at Park Congregational Church, titled “For the Love of Hope and Harmony.”
The piece is 14,114 paper-quilled hearts mounted on a board that is four feet by eight feet and arranged to resemble a sunset. Paper quilling is a centuries-old craft that uses thin strips of paper that are then formed into shapes; these shapes are combined into further shapes via artistic pinching and the strategic use of glue.
Hindley estimates that the project totaled hundreds of hours of work from December 2021 to July 2022. But the time invested, she added, was for a greater goal.
“My purpose is to show everybody that we are a lot more similar than we are different,” she said. “All of the hearts are individual but similar and then put together in what looks like a sunset because that's something that everybody can see all over the world from anywhere you are. So, it's a unifier. I feel like there's just so much division right now. I wanted to do something to pull people together.”