ArtPrize 2024, the international art competition held annually in Grand Rapids, will feature the artwork of two Chelsea residents when the event gets underway on Sept. 13 and runs to Sept. 28.
Both Kathie Blanding and Charlotte Wyche’s quilts were selected to be exhibited at ArtPrize, which will include 1,644 artists registered to exhibit their work in more than 180 venues in Grand Rapids.
Blanding’s quilt is titled “New Beginnings,” which she describes as a fabric landscape picture. She says it was inspired by a trip she and her husband took around the world in 2000 in their 45-foot sailboat. Blanding used local fabrics and memorabilia to create quilt squares to capture some of the places they visited.
Under Blanding’s entry, which is exhibited at the Innovation Design Center Starbucks in Grand Rapids, it reads: “New Beginnings – ferns coming to life, daffodils, butterflies, bears emerging from hibernation, snowy owls and other symbols of resilience, adaptability, open-mindedness, and wisdom.”
Wyche’s piece is quilted photograph art, which she titled “Good Morning Sunshine.” She learned to quilt at a thread-sketching-on-photographs workshop and decided to surround finished photographs with fabric instead of framing them behind glass. Wyche says her art juxtaposes the hard reality of the photograph with the softer, abstract qualities of quilted fabric.
Under Wyche’s entry, which is exhibited at the AC Hotel Grand Rapids Downtown, it reads: “This is a quilted photograph of spring tulips and a plastic bird sitting on my breakfast table in the early morning sunlight. Tulips were created in the quilted surround by adapting traditional log cabin quilt blocks.”
Both Wyche and Blanding have had their art exhibited in the past in the Ann Arbor Fiber Arts Guild show.
For more information about ArtPrize 2024, go to: https://www.artprize.org/
