Art Prize: What an Eagle!

The sun is shining, a few white fluffy clouds slowly move past, and thousands of people of all ages are strolling around downtown Grand Rapids. What is a better way to spend a Saturday afternoon? Art Prize seems to become more popular every year. Hundreds of artists display their art across Grand Rapids. Some are displayed in local businesses, along the sidewalk, across the bridge, or even in the Grand River. Art varies from paintings, giant sculptures, life sized horses made out of stickes and abstract art. One piece of art was strategically placed along Fulton Street by the Van Andel Arena. Thousands of people walk and drive past this area. At first one may appreciate the art but not understand what makes it special until they dig beneath the general appearance and focus on the detail. Some people walked by too fast. Others dropped their jaws and could not believe what the artist achieved. The artist had a story behind the art; art takes on a whole different meaning when the story is provided.  

While walking down Fulton Street a large form of an eagle can be seen.  Until I looked closely, I didn’t see anything unique about the piece.  Every part of the eagle is made up of forks and knives. A sign beneath the art stated that 3000 pieces of silverware makes up the eagle.  Curious about the piece of art, the artist answered a few questions. 

“When did you know you wanted to be an artist?”

“Well, I can remember as far back as being about six years old and drawing pictures of hot rods and thinking I could sell them.  From a very early age I got in trouble numerous times in elementary school for drawing in class instead of paying attention.  And I actually had a lot of my teachers try to squash my creativity, which was unfortunate.  I persevered and here I am.  I spent probably 15 to 20 years in the commercial arts, so I never went to college.  I’ve only gotten a high school education, and everything I know I pretty much learned on my own or taught myself.  But I always knew that someday I wanted to do fine art, and about 10 to 12 years ago I just started making stuff out of junk.”

“How did you come up with this art piece?” 

“Well, I had the idea of doing a bird because one day I just kinda realized that hey, you know what?  A knife kinda looks like a feather and a feather kinda looks like a knife.  So I thought well, maybe someday I’ll make a bird outa silverware, and I thought that I would do something tabletop sized.  But my first bird had a 6 foot wingspan; the second bird had an eight foot wingspan.  This is my third one and it’s nine and a half feet.”          

“How did you get it here?”

“Well it breaks down into five different components.  The back comes off, the wings come off, the body comes off the base.  So I built it that way partially because it helped in the building process the handling of it, I knew I was going to be working alone in moving it around and assembling it.”

I admire the artist’s determination and creativity.  In his early childhood, he didn’t let anyone discourage his creativity.  Rather than going to college, he taught himself.  When designing a bird, he sees feathers as forks and knives.  Confidence, endurance, and creativity are three important characteristics for an artist.  I enjoyed learning the artist’s story; now I look at the art with a different perspective. The art carries the characteristics of the artist.