Outside the Studio: Grand Rapids

Previously posted November 19, 2019 — A recent trip to Grand Rapids to take advantage of their bike trails surprisingly found me celebrating the arts that this city so whole heartedly embraces. On one of our three days I declared the weather not bike friendly to this gal so I headed to the Grand Rapids Art Museum. A retrospective of Illustrator David Wiesner’s work made me want to run home and dust off my watercolors. His illustrations of his wordless picture books are extraordinary! But I also embraced the way the exhibit was orchestrated and all the many educational pieces incorporated. into the exhibit. The details were brilliant and it made me think of how we do or miss out on incorporating the education of the visual in worship. Do we take time to explain the architecture, the bulletin cover, the vestments or the reason for the color of the paraments? We shouldn’t take for granted that everyone understands the visual connection.

A David Wiesner sketchbook that planned out the picture book Tuesday.

Secondly, ArtPrize was just concluding in Grand Rapids. What remained was a few special exhibitions called Project 1. The house installation by artist Heather Hart in front of the art museum was quite striking in how it was placed, how families were using it and also for the symbolism of the stability of shelter.

I walked away thinking about dwellings of all sorts. And while I think and ponder I’m continuing to work on my drawing skills on the iPad with a series of 100 dwellings. Here are a few…