Posts Tagged ‘art prize grand rapids’

My Art Prize

June 29th, 2012

Tweet“Misty, you really should think about.” This was never a good way to start a conversation. I don’t like feeling pushed to do things. My normal pattern is: complain, mope, get angry, then take action. I have a system. Most of the time however, I need a push. Brayton or my mom is usually responsible [...]
 

“Misty, you really should think about.”

This was never a good way to start a conversation. I don’t like feeling pushed to do things. My normal pattern is: complain, mope, get angry, then take action. I have a system.

Most of the time however, I need a push. Brayton or my mom is usually responsible for most of the pushing. I love it and dread it at the same time.

I find it difficult as an artist (seriously, did I just call myself an artist? I’m so lame) to make time for my own work. I really love what I do! I love photographing people in pretty places and wedding dresses. Is that so wrong?!

No. But I need to take time for my own work. I know this. It’s just hard to put into practice. Honestly, (and this is terrible) I haven’t attempted to do my own work since college. Misty this is bad!!

So, I made an attempt to fix this. What would I shoot? Where? Why? It came to me when Brayton took me to an in-the-city getaway at the JW Marriott. I took this image with my iphone.

Hmm… I wondered. I might have something here. So, (with a lot of pushing) I decided to enter Art Prize. I had no idea what I was doing. I didn’t know what i was doing and I worried that no one would like my work. I feared I’d be out the entry fee and feel like a failure. Things were very slow in the first weeks. I had no venue requests and figured it was over.

Then an interesting email came my way from Haworth. I was in complete shock… they wanted me to display my work in the windows along one of the busiest streets during Art Prize!!

I have no idea why they chose me, but I am so grateful! They must have liked what they saw.

Let me back up and explain what Art Prize is exactly…

ArtPrize® began three years ago as an experiment—a totally new event, unlike anything the world had ever seen, filled with the experiments of artists and the opinions of everyone.

Radically open to anyone and equally simple to understand.

ArtPrize was created to be a very different kind of art competition. It would decentralize the traditional, top-down art contest in two ways.

First there was the open call to artists, venues, and voters. Any artist in the world could compete; anyone with property in downtown Grand Rapids could turn their space into a venue; and any visitor could vote for their favorite artworks.

Second, ArtPrize made what amounted to a dating website for artists and venues. The organizers would provide no selection committees or curators. Anything was possible if the artists and venues agreed to make it happen.

Over three years there have been:

  • 4,557 Artists
  • 515 Venues
  • $1,428,000.00 in Prizes
  • 25,900,000 ArtPrize.org pageviews
  • 1,182,863 Votes
  • 122,748 Voters
  • and almost 1 Million visits to a city of 200,000 people.

I’m very excited to share more as the date gets closer. For now, you can see a little bit about my project here.

Art Prize opens September 19th in Grand Rapids and runs through October 7th 2012.

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The Best Feeling in the World, (for a photographer)

April 25th, 2012

TweetI watched the rain cascade down the windows and make puddles on the cement. When dreary weather would normally make me feel tired and defeated, I sat a little higher knowing that my day just turned around. I sat in the quiet moment, wanting to call my mom and text Brady but I waited just [...]
 

I watched the rain cascade down the windows and make puddles on the cement. When dreary weather would normally make me feel tired and defeated, I sat a little higher knowing that my day just turned around. I sat in the quiet moment, wanting to call my mom and text Brady but I waited just a minute longer to absorb it all. To take it in. To sit in silence and think. Think about what the day would be like. Where the sun would be in the sky. How the black and whites would look. What favorite image I’d have printed for my studio walls… but mostly what connections I’d make, the feeling I’d get when the dj kicks on the first track with a lot of bass and my feet hurt just enough to dance a little… then relaxing on the couch the next day looking at my images.

This is what I feel when I get that call or email that a client wants to book me. That they trust my skills and personality enough to chose me. It’s like being picked first in gym class. (And I never was) so basically it’s the best feeling in the world. Is this a tad over dramatic? Yes. But it’s how I feel. It’s exhilarating and I love every minute of it. Also, I’m a total dork. But I’m sure everyone knew this. I’m just going to own it, because I’m all about being real!

And because every post is better with a picture (otherwise why would people read, right?!) here is a sample for a possible Art Prize entry I’m working on.

misty minna photography llc

Can you guess what camera this was taken with?

 

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