The Factory

Come to our Free Pizza Lunch this Thursday (Sept2)

Web Collective Brian Miller and Josh Isaak

Artist bio
The Web Collective is an art producing tandem that seeks to blur the lines between technology, art and how we interact with both.

The olympus.mons interactive project projects photos of visitors to the exhibit, using custom software to create a multicultural mosaic.

olympus.mons stitches cultures, races, genders and all citizens into a landscape that seems alien on its surface, but is comprised of the faces we see every day.

Participants to this exhibit will have their photo taken and changed into an isometric representation that then immediately becomes part of the greater work. The mosaic is projected onto a wall at the exhibition, and is available online at www.olympusmons.me

About the work
Title: olympus.mons
Art form: 2-D, Internet / Interactive
Medium: Digital media
Year created: Work not created yet
Description of work: Olympus Mons is the largest mountain in the solar system. Much like its Martian namesake this work of art blurs the lines between complex natural phenomena and the human condition.

The olympus.mons interactive project projects photos of visitors to the exhibit, using custom software to create a multicultural mosaic.

olympus.mons invites us to reflect upon our own role in society and the differences each of us brings to any discourse. While we all look different on the surface, the mosaic also shows us that we’re all the same.

olympus.mons stitches cultures, races, genders and all citizens into a landscape that seems alien on its surface, but is comprised of the faces we see every day.

Participants to this exhibit will have their photo taken and changed into an isometric representation that then immediately becomes part of the greater work. The mosaic is projected onto a wall at the exhibition, and is available online at www.olympusmons.me

Jodi Schaap

Artist bio
Jodi is a reward winning photographer and loves to dabble in the possibilities with lighting and the playful nature of all things around her. Photography is one of her mediums but she’s also an avid writer and a constant creator of fulfilling events as she checks off items from her life list with fervor and passion. Her tag-line to all of her art and her life is “I tell stories” and it’s with determination and will that she carries this theme into everything she does.

About the work
Title: Lady Leap
Art form: 2-D
Medium: Photography, digital
Year created: 2010
Description of work: A digital print of a young girl leaping into the water, horizon stretching before her. Pure freedom in the air. Michigan Awesome is absolutely true, but Jessica’s wonder is even better.

Rich Evenhouse

Artist bio
After graduating with a Fine Art degree from Calvin College, Rich has been professionally creating and producing work in multiple mediums (photography, design, digital media and video) for over 14 years. He enjoys photography as a personal creative outlet, actively creating/shooting digital images and films (such timelapse photography). He is currently living and working as a Senior Art Director at the Image Group in Holland, Michigan.

About the work
Title: Cheyenne
Art form: 2-D
Medium: photography
Year created: 2009
Description of work: I love to shoot landscapes. B&W, film, digital – I love to capture the textures, the shadows and all of the crazy items we humans have thrown into the middle of them. The natural world is a fascinating place, yet even more fascinating is figuring out what our place is within it.

The centerpiece of my proposal is an old car, rusting away in a grassy field. It is the landscape of Cheyenne, a view the wide grassy plains. The dark blues of the sky, the grassy fields, isolating the rusty hulk of this old automobile. A statement of simpler times past and a comment on our modern, uncertain future.

I would like to create a large format panoramic layout. Each image would b 16″x20″ to 30″x24″ (preferred) with a .5″ gap in between, depending on space restrictions of the venue.

Sara Leo

Artist bio
My name is Sara Leo. I grew up in Ada, MI. I currently live on the SE side of Grand Rapids with my husband Josh. I majored in English and Media Studies at Calvin College and currently I teach Speech, Drama and Media Literacy at Kalamazoo Christian High School. Photography is my hobby and I am passionate about educating young people about art of all kinds, particularly mass media art. I believe this project exemplifies that passion.

About the work
Title: the medium is the message
Art form: 2-D
Medium: photography
Year created: 2010
Description of work: iconic Michigan landscapes photographed with a low fidelity instant film camera

As a media literacy educator, I teach my students that understanding and interpreting popular media involves more than just evaluating content. In fact, when analyzing a media message, the content is often secondary to the medium it is being communicated with. So, my idea for this project was to highlight this distinction between content and medium by contrasting them. Beautiful landscape photographs are typically taken with extremely high fidelity equipment and printed on large panoramic paper, but by shooting the same content with a tiny instant film camera a whole new message comes to the front.

I hope that by looking at our surroundings through a slightly different lens, we can bring to the surface our own perspectives on nature and beauty as well as media and technology. One of the things this project makes me think about is how I value and care for the environment.

We are proud to present to you a very talented spread of artists that will be displaying their Artprize pieces here at the Factory! Our first artist is..

Jonathan Quist

Artist bio
I will be graduating from Kendall College of Art and Design this fall with a MFA in painting. I have taught art at Grand Rapids Christian High School for the past eight years.

About the work
Title: Ford Help Us
Art form: 2-D
Medium: Oil
Year created: 2009
Description of work: I started this painting three years ago. My intention was to complete a series of paintings that inserted characters from older biblical paintings into contemporary scenes from American suburban life. In this piece I have inserted several of the disciples from Da Vinci’s The Last Supper into the unveiling of the new Ford Mustang. This juxtaposition is intended to ask questions about what we truly value and put our hope and trust in.

Dear Artprize,

I can’t stop thinking about you! I know we were meant to be together. We have so many things in common it would just be wrong to ignore it. We both care a ton about the community. We thrive off new and innovative ideas. We both love bringing groups of people together, getting them excited and watching them make an impact on the world. We’re conversationalists and live in the moment. We both live and breathe Grand Rapids, the city we’ve grown up in and first met. Artprize, we’re a perfect match I just wanted to say, I love you.

The Factory

Be sure to mark your online calendar for this coming August 20th and 21st because it’s time for Grand Rapid’s technology & design unconference, Barcamp! There will be free food, great discussions, and wide spread technology topics. There will also be two 10 Day Factory Punch Cards that will be given as prizes! Register and find out more at barcampgr.org. We look forward to seeing you there.