PO (Art)Box - ARtPrize 2023
PO (Art)Box is specializing in small artwork because scale is often a majority factor in ArtPrize entries. Curator Sierra Cole says, "We all know that ArtPrize is about having a conversation about art, we just feel that most of the time that conversation revolves around large scale works of art. We want to flip that conversation and talk about how small works of art are just as viable as large scale works. They are just as challenging, time consuming, and complex as their large counterparts." Intergalactic Arts Federation has been selected as recipient of one of forty seed grants given during ArtPrize 2023.
PO (Art)Box installations can be viewed 24 hours-a-day from outdoor mailbox banks that will be located just outside the Ledyard Post Office, 120 Monroe Center NW, across from Rosa Parks Circle and the Grand Rapids Art Museum.
Special thank you to Simon Hough and David Keister for technical support and maintenance of the PO (Art)Boxes.
The ArtISTS - ArtPrize 2023
Cheryl Holz - Sea and sky
Finding myself in suburbia after growing up in a rural area, my local forest preserves and prairies provide a sanctuary from the normal chaos of life. I’m usually motivated by a need for some privacy and to escape, but then time slows and quickly turns into curiosity, awe, and inspiration. The beauty and resiliency, the textures and earthy palette and the small miracles that happen daily are all fodder for my work. The mushroom that appeared overnight, the fallen tree blanketed with 3 types of lush moss, the bird’s nest that was engineered to simultaneous contain and camouflage offspring – these are both motivation and material for my work.
The ways I incorporate these influences have evolved over the years. I emulate natural aging processes in the studio with paint and materials, building up and wearing away like water on rock. I have always conscientiously collected specimens and learned how best to preserve and integrate them, but lately I have been using some more indirect techniques that also capture aspects of plants, trees, or a landscape. Being a process junkie, I’m now using Ecoprints, digital prints, silkscreen specimens, transfers, digitally cut silhouettes, and most recently archivally printed photographs in my work. I liken my process to jazz: after much preparation and research, I jump in and improvise with processes, not music notes, striving for equilibrium between spontaneity and deliberation.
My goal is to convey a different kind of landscape or nature study experience, one that is more in keeping with my experience of that particular place on that particular path in that particular moment. I seek to provide a micro and macro view that zooms out to the treetops, but also zooms in on the tiny bracket fungus flanking a tree. I want to provide both a visual and tactile experience, whose shape breaks out of the traditional canvas. I incorporate conservation literature and field guides that stimulate the left brain nature nerd inside all of us! My goal is to inspire, in others, the same love of nature that I experience, to bring nature into their space, to motivate them to immerse themselves in it and experience the same peace and awe I do.
Authors/publications used:
“Sand County Summer Almanac,” Aldo Leopold
“Walden,” Henry David Thoreau
“Gathering moss: a Natural and Cultural History of mosses,” Robin Wall Kimmerer
“The Nature Encyclopedia, Vol.4, 1921”
“A Text-book of Botany”, John M.Coulter, 1908
“The World of Plant Life” , C.J. Hylander, 1939
“Leaves and what they Do,” 1945 organic gardening pamphlet.
Renee Therriault
ROULETTE (a visual comment on power and violence)
Media: Metal, Ink
Heather Havens
Fluent in Fibre: Blossoms & Bumbles - The Purl in a Pollinator's Paradise
Medium: Fiber, fabric, resin, popsicle sticks, wood house
I’m a fiber artist and former curator of a quaint yarn boutique. My love for crafting is not just a hobby, but a way of life, a form of self-expression that has woven itself into the very fabric of my existence.
Every strand of fiber transforms into a story, a piece of art spun from the loom of my imagination. I knit, spin, weave, crochet, sew, embroider, and anything else fiber related you can think of.
Join me as I continue to unravel the tapestry of my artistic journey, one thread at a time. The world is a kaleidoscope of colors, patterns, and textures, and I invite you to experience the magic of fiber art through my creations.
amy Johnson - Fishtales
Amy Johnson Designs is a collection of original beaded jewelry made to celebrate the unique style of the wearer. Bead weaving and bead embroidery techniques are combined to create intricate layers of color and texture.
Amy’s innovation is guided by an attitude that one must change to grow as an artist. She has received numerous awards and her work has been published in magazines and books including “500 Art Necklaces” by Lark Books.
Eric Millikin
Séance Affliction: Ancient and Alien Technology
Media: Lenticular print, artificial intelligence
Part of a series exploring new systems for séance-terrific scientific research for expanded documentary video and photography of the past, present, and future.
Eric Millikin is a new media artist based in Baltimore, Maryland (previously Detroit, Michigan and Richmond, Virginia). He comes from a working-class family, growing up in a mobile home in the woods of rural Michigan. Millikin is a first-generation college student, earning his BFA from Michigan State University and MFA from Virginia Commonwealth University's Kinetic Imaging program. His artwork has been featured in WIRED, USA TODAY, and The New York Times. His recent residencies include Cow House Studios in Ireland, Ayatana Biophilium hosted online from Ottawa, Canada, and Artist is Absent hosted online from Ukraine as the Russian military invaded. He is an Assistant Professor of Visual Arts and Animation at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.
Barbara Lash - Exodus - Finding Refuge
Finding beauty in the broken, Barbara works steps away from traditional art media to embrace the deep red of an old traffic sign, the sheen of a vinyl record, or the jumble of possibilities hidden in old telephone wires. She connects these fragments by painting, weaving, sculpting, and fabricating and gives them new life as fine art pieces and public art installations.
For more than 30 years, she has been criss-crossing the US selling her work at fine art festivals, museums and galleries, winning occasional awards and getting included in several major corporate collections.
Brandy Gerber
Inside the Artist’s Brain
Medium: Leftover acrylic paint skins from old palettes
Brandy Gerber is an artist who loves exploring new mediums and techniques. She works primarily in acrylics and watercolors but also enjoys sculpting and building things. She resides in Ida, Michigan where she enjoys spending time with her husband and their sweet pup Porter. She is currently an Artist-In-Residence at the River Raisin National Battlefield Park where she is painting a large scale mural and assisting the park staff wherever other artistic needs are required. She also serves as a curator for the “Beautiful, Bountiful Michigan” art exhibit held annually at the park. She enjoys capturing the beauty of nature and animals in her art.
Carrie Hawkins - A Purrfectly Mad Tea Party
Media: fiber, found objects and paint
This diorama was created using fiber and textile remnants leftover from other projects as well as found objects. "Alice in Wonderland" was one of my favorite books to read as a child and was my inspiation for this piece. I wanted this scene to have the same etheral almost spooky feel that I imagined as I read and re-read the book. I decided to give my Alice story a twist by making all of the characters cats. I painted each to represent my four fur baby rescues as well as my sweet black cat who crossed the rainbow bridge this past spring.
This diorama was a fun challenge in learning how to work on a smaller scale than I'm typically used to.
In today’s world of excess, it’s important to me to take old, discarded, once-loved things of the past and rescue them from the landfill, breathing new life in them through my art. In my art, I use fabric from damaged sweaters, shirt ties, scarves and other textiles that would otherwise be sent to a landfill, combined with found objects and paint to create entirely new beautiful objects, while leaving as small of a carbon footprint on earth as possible.
d'Ann de Simone - eîdos
d'Ann de Simone is a Professor in the Department of Art, Art History and Design at Michigan State University where she teaches 2D courses.
de Simone is from Westerly, Rhode Island and lives in East Lansing and New Haven, Connecticut. She received her degrees in printmaking and painting from University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and Rhode Island School of Design. She also studied graduate art history at Brown.
de Simone shows her work nationally and internationally. She belongs to A.I.R. in Brooklyn, New York, where she had a solo exhibition in January, accompanied by a catalog. She shows at K12 Gallerie in Bregenz, Austria where she will have a solo exhibition in 2025.
Sierra Cole
In the Shadow, I dream of Other Worlds
Sierra started felting in 2001 under the guidance of her boss (now friend) while working at small town newspaper. Discovering a passion for fiber and color, she left the newspaper to pursue a full-time career as a fiber artist. She has participated in art shows throughout the midwest such as: Laumeier, Ann Arbor Art Fair, Art Fair on the Square Madison, 57th Street Chicago, Rittenhouse Fine Craft Philadelphia, and Penrod Indianapolis. She has also shown work at 337 Project Space, Light Gallery + Studio, Lowell Arts, and Paint Creek Center for the Arts. She was a participant in ArtPrize 2015 as part of Processing Fiber at 250 Monroe which was placed on the Juror Shortlist for Outstanding Venue by Steven Matijcio, Cincinnati-based Curator at the Contemporary Arts Center. She is also Co-Curator of PO (Art)Box, an art installation utilizing Cluster Box Units to showcase the artwork of artists making miniature art installations and dioramas.
Sierra graduated from Michigan State University with a bachelor’s degree of fine art, with a focus on graphic design and printmaking. She lives and works in a 100+ year-old home in the Eastown neighborhood of Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Michele Miller-Hansen
Question: Why are frogs so good at basketball?
Answer: Because they always make jump shots.
This little diorama is simply a moment of silliness - frogs playing a pickup game of basketball. The artist is offering viewers, young and old, a reason to smile and indulge in a little playful imagination.
Michele Miller-Hansen is an artist whose professional career has included graphic design, art direction, digital animation, app design, courtroom sketching and the occasional shoe repair project. In her personal moments of artistic passion, Michele has worked in a wide range of mediums… fiber, fabric, leather, wood, tile, metal and found objects, primarily in 3D. For her, making art is the thread that stitches pieces of life together - a way to express feelings, process difficult times, and reconnect with the natural world. Creating art provides solace, triggers moments of brilliance, and in rare moments makes time disappear.
This is Michele’s first venture with using an ‘outside-in’ rubber basketball as a medium :)
Todd Ramquist & Kiaralinda
HeARTs Abound
David Keister
Ed Derkevics
The ArtISTS - ArtPrize 2022
Barbara LASH - Exodus
Finding beauty in the broken, Barbara works steps away from traditional art media to embrace the deep red of an old traffic sign,the sheen of a vinyl record, or the jumble of possibilities hidden in old telephone wires. She connects these fragments by painting, weaving, sculpting, and fabricating and gives them new life as icons of modern culture.
For more than 30 years, she has been criss-crossing the US selling her work at fine art festivals, museums and galleries, winning occasional awards and getting included in several major corporate collections. When she’s not on the road, she’s active in the GR arts community. She tends to her urban garden, takes on social action with a local group and she raises her 17yr old daughter, escaping to the beach every chance she gets.
Connect with Barbara:
Website: http://barbaradanger.com/
Instagram: @barbaradanger.art
Renee Therriault - Relic
Heather Havens
Fluent in Fibre: Don't Stop Be-Weavin'
Fiber eco-system done with weaving and needle felting. Materials: Yarn, wool sweater, furniture sample, and a few pipe cleaners.
Monica Stegeman - Hanging by a Thread
Lee Thomson - Rivers of Light
Cheryl Holz - Contemplating the Universe
Eric Millikin -
A Cathedral of Greed
Media: Paper sculpture, microcontroller, LED lights, creative coding, AI trained on paper currency, cathedrals, and gargoyles
Bio: Eric Millikin is a new media artist based in Richmond, Virginia. He comes from a working-class family, growing up in a mobile home in the woods of rural Michigan. Millikin is a first-generation college student, earning his BFA from Michigan State University and MFA from Virginia Commonwealth University's Kinetic Imaging program, where he currently teaches. His artwork has been featured in WIRED, USA TODAY, and The New York Times. His recent residencies include Cow House Studios in Ireland, Ayatana Biophilium hosted online from Ottawa, Canada, and Artist is Absent hosted online from Ukraine as the Russian military invaded.
Sierra Cole - Please Proceed With Care
Kiaralinda - Whimzeywire Peace
David Keister - GLow
David Keister - Phantom Galaxy
d’Ann deSimone - Dihydrogen Monoxide
BIO: While I have illustrated in two dimensions—for publication in curriculum, magazines, and books, I love to make and have my students create three-dimensional illustrations of ideas. My degrees are in biology, art, and special education. As a board member of the Illinois Prairie Path, and a public television producer in Chicago, I helped with a major recycling project called Rails to Trails, created claymation, public service announcements, and wrote a song to secure grant funding. You never know when a purple finch might make its nest in a sleeve of the jean jacket you left out on the line!
E.A.Wilde Cryderman
E.A. Wilde Cryderman -
Hello Travelers, Welcome to Earth
The 2022 solar-powered installation by The Intergalactic Arts Federation is called POArtBox, which is comprised of artworks inside actual post office boxes, each being a separate “statement” piece.
“Hello Travelers. Welcome to Earth” is a happy scene, with people dancing and party garlands above them spelling out “Hello” in 30 different languages, representing all the continents, with letter beads and pompoms. I made tiny people shapes from wire and attached them to five small clock motors, with the sweep/second hand to move them, so that they are “dancing.” I attached a light in the front so that the shadows cast onto the white back “wall” make it look like even more people. The party room side walls are a sparkly blue, representing the oceans. I had to also place a small flashlight in there to cast enough light for sharper shadows. A complete problem-solving activity—as all art is!
“Mingalarbar” is my favorite “Hello.” It’s typically accompanied by a slight bow, or more formally, a gesture wherein the palms are folded together. It is rendered in English as "May you be blessed.”
It was hard to come up with a title, but then I remembered a quote by Kurt Vonnegut:
“Hello babies. Welcome to Earth. It's hot in the summer and cold in the winter. It's round and wet and crowded. On the outside, babies, you've got a hundred years here. There's only one rule that I know of, babies—God damn it, you've got to be kind.”
E. A. Wilde Cryderman 2022
Matt Landini - Untitled
Ed Derkevics - Woof
The ArtISTS - ArtPrize 2021
Renee Terriault The Thunder Goddess
David Keister When Worlds Kalide
The Eye
Sally Bright. Will the Future Remember When Earth Had Glaciers and Ice Caves?
Kiaralinda WhimzeyWire World
Monica Stegeman Short Stories
Barbara Danger Die Furchtlose (The fearless one)
Heather Havens Fluent in Fibre: What Wood Ewe Do?
d'Ann de Simone Dihydrogen Monoxide
Ed Derkevics Paco
Eric Millikin $4.51
Sierra Cole The Sounds of the Universe Echo Through the Valley
Lee Thomson Remember When Stars Grew on Trees?
E.A. Wilde Cryderman Hello Travelers. Welcome to Earth
Dianne Carroll Burdick Keeping
Cheryl Holz Hobbit Home
Beth Godleski Untitled
Matt Landini InsaneGOParty
Heather Richardson #SHAMinals
The Artwork - ArtPrize 2018
d'Ann de Simone, Matt Landini, Heather Havens, Simon Houg, Lee Thomson, Cheryl Holz, Jovanni Luna, Monica Stegeman, Renee Therriault, Kiaralinda, Barbara Lash, John Whipple, Lynn Whipple, Howard Sheltraw, Kari Wilson, E.A. Wilde Cryderman, Christine Keller, Ed Derkevics and Sierra Cole were all chosen to show at a new venue located in city center during ArtPrize 10.
The Intergalactic Arts Federation at PO Art(Box) is on the Top 25 Public Vote List for Installation! Help us get to Round Two!
Vote Code: 67370
http://www.artprize.org/67370
Sierra Cole
The Universe Was Created In Her Hair
Sierra started felting in 2001 under the guidance of her boss while working at small town newspaper. Discovering a passion for fiber and color, she left the newspaper to pursue a full-time career as a fiber artist. She has participated in art shows throughout the midwest such as: Laumier, Ann Arbor Art Fair, Gold Coast, Art Fair on the Square Madison, 57th Street Chicago, and Penrod. She has also shown work at 337 Project Space, Light Gallery + Studio, Paint Creek Center for the Arts, Lemonade Stand Gallery, and Kresge Art Museum. She was a participant in ArtPrize 2015 as part of Processing Fiber at 250 Monroe which was placed on the Juror Shortlist for Outstanding Venue by Steven Matijcio, Cincinnati-based Curator at the Contemporary Arts Center.
Sierra graduated from Michigan State University in 2000 with a bachelor’s degree of fine art, with a focus on graphic design and printmaking. She lives and works in a 100+ year-old home in the Eastown neighborhood of Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Sierra is a recipient of a 2017 Go Fund Me Matching Grant. You can learn more about Sierra and her work by visiting:
E.A. Wilde Cryderman
Selfie in the Key of Sea
Three and a half months after my parents, a clothing designer and an inventor, immigrated from the Valley of the Seven Dwarf Mountains and the Pied Piper Town of Hameln, I was born in Detroit, Michigan, home to decades of R&B, Gospel, and Jazz music. My mother had left her violin behind, but my father accompanied their songs and stories on his harmonica, which he joked was so much better than carrying a piano in his shirt pocket. We--five children eventually--were educated in the music of opera, folk music, and the symphony. We became engineers and artists with a lot of music and humor sprinkled throughout. As an artist and educator, I love to open doors for understanding and to make connections, especially creating interactive learning pathways. With degrees in Biology, Art, and Special Education, I have written music, won grants, and illustrated national curriculum projects, books, and magazines. I like to learn how things work and see surprises of people and nature.
This work celebrates the joyful surprise of our diverse “musics”—in recording a unique self-portrait in a post office box, and radiating that visual, musical moment by sending it out.
d'Ann de Simone
decadent sustainability
d'Ann de Simone is a Professor in the Department of Art, Art History and Design at Michigan State University where she teaches 2D courses. She also directs an Education Abroad summer course: Music, Art and Culture in Bregenz, Austria.
de Simone is from Rhode Island and now lives in East Lansing and New Haven, Connecticut. She received her degrees in printmaking and painting from University of Massachusetts, Amherst and Rhode Island School of Design. She has a strong liberal arts education and attended Brown University where she studied graduate art history.
de Simone shows her work nationally and internationally. She is represented by A.I.R. in Brooklyn, New York and at K12 Gallerie in Bregenz, Austria. She will be having a solo show in Brooklyn in 2019.
Ed Derkevics
Woof
Heather Havens & Simon Houg
Compassion Refraction
Cheryl Holz
Hobbit Home
My work is a homage to nature’s strength, beauty and diversity. I emulate natural aging processes by building up and wearing away various materials on hollow wooden panels. Anything from dragonfly wings to prairie grasses are embedded at various points of the process. The symbolic implications of the methods and materials are as important as the imagery.
I enjoy balancing a wide variety of techniques; pouring a river of ink, creating a photo silkscreen of the night sky, or setting shellac on fire to capture the pattern the residue creates. I can spend the morning putting in a loose painterly wash of sky, then spend the afternoon rendering an intricate spider’s web in pen and ink. I carefully collect and press botanical specimens, batik on relevant quotes or song lyrics, and construct small wooden niches to house fragile natural finds like a quail’s egg or a butterfly. I enjoy finding the perfect process for whatever the situation calls for.
In the studio I am always striving for equilibrium between spontaneity and deliberation, creating sensuous surfaces that reflect my process and balances the natural with the manmade. My goal is to constantly grow in and through my art. I'd like to inspire, in others, the same love of nature that I experience myself, thus promoting the recognition that we are inseparable from this earth we live in. I grew up in the country, collecting moss, bugs, leaves, and to my mother’s chagrin, snakes and salamanders. My rural upbringing had a big influence on my aesthetic sensibility and my artwork. I taught after getting an undergraduate degree in Art Education, then again after obtaining an M.F.A. I enjoyed it, but slowly became a full-time artist as interest in my work grew.
My work has received national recognition, been shown in museums and galleries, and purchased by art collectors, corporations, and hospitals. I have completed 8 artist residencies, and received numerous arts in education grants from the Illinois Arts Council. My greatest reward by far,however, is loading my dogs into the truck and heading to my studio!
Christine Keller
Transformation (First Phase)
Christine has lived in Cambridge, Massachusetts; Jalisco, Mexico and Leelanau County, Michigan. She has worked in a variety of art and craft media including bronze, clay, acrylic, watercolor, cement and quilt making. Christine has enjoyed teaching art to children and adults. She hopes her work brings delight, insight and possibly a smile to the viewer.
Kiaralinda
Lil Flight
Kiaralinda and Todd, the Whimzey Twinz from Safety Harbor, Florida- two of the most creative creatures in captivity! They create unique art forms made from aluminum wire they call Whimzey Wire. “Flight” is their whimzey wire Artprize entry in front of Holiday Inn Downtown Grand Rapids consisting of a field of dragonflies, bees, butterflies and flowers.
Two of their largest artistic endeavors are their home/studio called Whimzeyland and theSafety Harbor Art and Music Center (SHAMc), their nonprofit arts center.
Matt Landini
Mentor, AKA Fool’s Gold
Barbara Lash
The Oracle
Barbara Lash started her professional art career as an entrepreneurial 9 yr old, gathering bits of found telephone wire and creating small sculptures that she sold to friends. Ever since, she’s been fascinated with the broken, cast off or discarded, finding beauty and meaning in things that others dismiss. In college, Barbara studied Fine Craft which gave her immersion in tactile arts like metalworking, fiber arts, glass working, ceramics and sculpture.
Known for her beaded micro mosaic paintings and sculpture, Barbara (aka Barbara Danger) shows her work at fine art shows, museum shows and galleries around the country.
Jovanni Luna
untitled exploration for a future installation
Jovanni Luna was born in Wenatchee, WA. He received his BFA from Washington State University (2013), an MFA from Columbus College of Art & Design (2015), and is currently residing in Brooklyn, NY. For more work you can go to jovanniluna.com or follow @brownbear104 (instagram)
A paintskin in its most simplest definition is latex paint, but the manipulation of the materiality allows it to take many forms and ideas. untitled exploration for a future installation is one of the many experiments that explores a specific technique for the construction of, “the landscape painting” a large scale installation that has been in development for a couple of years. By focusing on the material to create different shapes and being conscious of color, the paintskins are allowed to take a form that seem to represent familiar objects.
Howard Sheltraw
The Gold Rush: The Centennial of the end of WW1
Monica Stegeman
The Deep Dive
Assemblage art gives me the freedom to explore new narratives by combining man-made and natural objects in a new way that can lead to transformation and healing. It tricks the subconscious into revealing the hidden shadow side. With this approach, there is a new path that appears for us to travel on.
Renee Therriault
Universe Birth
Lee Thomson
Remember When Stars Grew on Trees?
Lee Thomson has recently finished a mid-life crisis and is looking around for dragons.
John Whipple
The World’s Largest Ball of String
John graduated with a degree in commercial art and design and started his career as an art director. He later shifted to free lance illustration and also worked as a muralist, doing large jobs for Universal Studios and for the Orlando Science Center. After working for Nickelodeon Studios for a number of years, John and his wife Lynn, left to sell their own work though galleries and art festivals throughout the country, which they have continued to do for the last twenty years. John resides in Winter Park, Florida and has his studio at McRae Art Studios, an artist complex started by his family 28 years ago.
Lynn Whipple
Move Your Hands
Lynn grew up in beautiful Winter Park, Florida. She and her husband, artist John Whipple, are a part of the founding family that, in 1990, established McRae Art Studios in Winter Park, Florida. McRae is the home of 23 artists and is well known as a vibrant art collective in the Central Florida area. Lynn has received numerous awards including two Florida State Grants for Individual Artists, as well as two Professional Artist's Development Grants for Central Florida. Lynn teaches online and in-person mixed media, drawing and painting workshops.
Kari Wilson
Chair with Antarctica #3
Mixed media: watercolor, acrylic, glass
2018
Kari Wilson studied art at San Francisco State and the University of Arizona where she earned an MFA. Kari’s work explores the aesthetic of catastrophe. She has exhibited her paintings widely throughout Michigan. This is her second ArtPrize experience. An art educator for many years, Kari currently teaches at the Gwen Frostic School of Fine Arts at Western Michigan.
The Artwork - ArtPrize 2017
Eric Millikin, Firth MacMillan, Barbara Lash, Denise Ardis, John Whipple, Lynn Whipple, Ed Brownlee, Jonathan D. Lopez, Howard Sheltraw and Sierra Cole were all chosen to show at a new venue located in city center during ArtPrize 9. The ten artists showed in small Post Office Boxes that made up this official venue located inside the United States Postal Service - Ledyard Station, 120 Monroe Center NW.
Lynn Whipple
I am deeply grateful to live my life as an artist. Play and discovery are my dearest and most constant companions. There are a zillion tiny challenges in each art making experience, and so often I find, just as many small, sweet victories. Without a doubt, living creatively is the most enjoyable and satisfying game I know.
My favorite artistic projects at the moment are encouraging creativity and play with my online art classes and enjoying working in the studio large paintings that have an under layer of figure painting and large loose, juicy florals on top. YUM!!
You can learn more about Lynn and her work by visiting:
www.instagram.com/lynnwhipple
www.lynnwhipple.com/
www.facebook.com/Lynn-Whipple-Art-346136962142796/
Eric Millikin
Eric is the son of a Michigan autoworker, the grandson of a farmer, and the descendant of one of the women executed during the Salem Witch Trials. He creates activist experimental artwork on economic, environmental and justice themes. He works in printmaking, sculpture, and conceptual art. He has distributed his artwork through mass media and through guerrilla installation and performance. His work is characterized by unusual methods, unusual materials, social activism, and dark humor.
Eric attended Michigan State University where he studied fine art and creative writing in their Honors College, paying his way through school by dissecting and embalming cadavers in the MSU human anatomy lab. He received a BFA in Studio Art in 1998. Since then, his artwork has been featured by WIRED, CNN, USA TODAY, Ellen Degeneres, the Chew, and Monday Night Football, and by congressmen on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives.
He works just outside of Detroit in Royal Oak, Michigan. His artwork has been shown in galleries and museums including the University of Illinois’ Krannert Art Museum, San Francisco's Cartoon Art Museum, The Laboratory of Art and Ideas at Belmar, Colorado and the Academy of Fine Arts in Sint- Niklaas, Belgium. More locally, his work has been exhibited at Michigan State University’s Kresge Art Museum, B414 Gallery in Lansing, Headspace Gallery in Dearborn, Tangent Gallery in Detroit, and Start Gallery in Detroit.
His 2017 ArtPrize entry is titled "Made of Money" and is a series of portraits of Nikola Tesla, Vincent Van Gogh, Joe Louis, Edgar Allen Poe, Hedy Lamar based on cut-up strips of paper money woven together.
This series to reminds us that our best people aren't always rewarded with wealth, and that our wealthiest people aren't always our best.
You can learn more about Eric and his work by visiting:
www.instagram.com/ericmillikin/
www.facebook.com/ericmillikin
twitter.com/ericmillikin
Firth MacMillan
Firth MacMillan is an artist based in Toronto. She has exhibited at CRG Gallery, Lyons Wier Gallery and Charles Cowles Gallery in New York and at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, The Gardiner Museum, and San Bao International in China.
A graduate of the University of Nebraska -Lincoln (MFA) and the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design (BFA), Firth is the recipient of numerous awards including an Ontario Arts Council grant, Hixson-Lied fellowships and a Canada Council grant. She is currently teaching ceramics and sculpture at Kalamazoo College in Michigan.
You can learn more about Firth and her work by visiting:
firthmacmillan.com/
Jonathan D. Lopez
Jonathan is a self-taught sculptor and illustrator from Grand Rapids, MI. Initially interested in stop-motion animation, he shifted primarily to still photography in 2009. In the past his sculptures have accompanied him to New York, Washington D.C., Louisiana, and Colorado. Mixing humor with art, Jonathan's main drive for creating is to bring smiles and laughter to viewers.
Jonathan is a recipient of a 2017 Frey Foundation Artist Seed Grant.
You can learn more about Jonathan and his work by visiting:
clayalchemist.com/
www.instagram.com/clayalchemist/
www.facebook.com/clayalchemist/
Ed Brownlee
Ed is a ceramic artist living in Kalamazoo, Michigan. He is the best kisser and really good with his hands, but he's all mine. Ed has work all over the world and won a bunch of awards. He earned a MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago way back when. Been throwing his life away ever since (get it) making fun, thoughtful, and functional work.
Sierra Cole
Sierra started felting in 2001 under the guidance of her boss while working at small town newspaper. Discovering a passion for fiber and color, she left the newspaper to pursue a full-time career as a fiber artist. She has participated in art shows throughout the midwest such as: Laumier, Ann Arbor Art Fair, Gold Coast, Art Fair on the Square Madison, 57th Street Chicago, and Penrod. She has also shown work at 337 Project Space, Light Gallery + Studio, Paint Creek Center for the Arts, Lemonade Stand Gallery, and Kresge Art Museum. She was a participant in ArtPrize 2015 as part of Processing Fiber at 250 Monroe which was placed on the Juror Shortlist for Outstanding Venue by Steven Matijcio, Cincinnati-based Curator at the Contemporary Arts Center.
Sierra graduated from Michigan State University in 2000 with a bachelor’s degree of fine art, with a focus on graphic design and printmaking. She lives and works in a 100+ year-old home in the Eastown neighborhood of Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Sierra is a recipient of a 2017 Go Fund Me Matching Grant.
You can learn more about Sierra and her work by visiting:
Denise Ardis
Bio coming soon.
Barbara Lash
Barbara Lash started her professional art career as an entrepreneurial 9 yr old, gathering bits of found telephone wire and creating small sculptures that she sold to friends. Ever since, she’s been fascinated with the broken, cast off or discarded, finding beauty and meaning in things that others dismiss. In college, Barbara studied Fine Craft which gave her immersion in tactile arts like metalworking, fiber arts, glass working, ceramics and sculpture.
Known for her beaded micro mosaic paintings and sculpture, Barbara (aka Barbara Danger) shows her work at fine art shows, museum shows and galleries around the country.
John Whipple
John graduated with a degree in commercial art and design and started his career as an art director. He later shifted to free lance illustration and also worked as a muralist, doing large jobs for Universal Studios and for the Orlando Science Center. After working for Nickelodeon Studios for a number of years, John and his wife Lynn, left to sell their own work though galleries and art festivals throughout the country, which they have continued to do for the last twenty years. John resides in Winter Park, Florida and has his studio at McRae Art Studios, an artist complex started by his family 28 years ago.
”Letterheads" envelopes, tape and watercolor 2017
Howard Sheltraw
Howard studied graphic art and illustration at Central Michigan University and Kendall College of Art and Design.
He is a writer and radio host at Townsquare Media. He resides in the Creston neighborhood of Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Links
Official ArtPrize 2017 Entry link.
Curators:
Todd Ramquist
Sierra Cole
Part of the SHAMc Collective
Participating Artists
Denise Ardis
Ed Brownlee
Sierra Cole
Barbara Lash
Jonathan D. Lopez
Firth MacMillan
Eric Millikin
Howard Sheltraw
John Whipple
Lynn Whipple
PO (Art)Box Press
Enough With The Big — Here’s The Smallest Venue At ArtPrize, A Post Office Box • 98.7 WFJR - September 22, 2017
Area Artists Participate in ArtPrize Nine • Midland Daily News - September 26, 2017
How a Quirky Art Prize Tied to the DeVos Family Went Political • New York Times - September 27, 2017
Made of Money • The Collegiate (GRCC) - September 28, 2017
