Marion, Indiana

Hoosier sandwiches, Gene Stratton-Porter, Frank Lloyd Wright and the Amish.

Stopped to see family in Marion and were treated like royalty, took us all over the place, I think Isabella and Powell would have stayed with Aunt Linda and Uncle Charlie. Ate my first Hoosier Sandwich in Berne, Indiana and am still regretting not photographing the monster. A pork tenderloin beaten until it is about 1/2 an inch thick and 8 inches in diameter, breaded, fried and placed on an abusrredly small 4 inch dia. bun with pickles, ketchup and mustard. Very tasty but no one here knows what a Hossier is either.

After departing Berne you of course drive through Geneva which houses the Limberlost, Gene Stratton Porter's home.

Frank Lloyd Wright house in Marion.

Surfing Michigan

OK so maybe it wasn't quite big enough to surf. The waves were about 3-4 feet and a bit choppy so either they were too small or I wasn't good enough to surf them, probably the latter. The surf was good enough to boogey board though, both water and air temp. about 60 degrees, nice!

Isabella had a blast on the shore break.


20 mph winds made apres-boarding a bit chilly for little ones.

Powell had fun for about 5 seconds.

After catching a wave in the face he was ready to get out.

Lake Michigan

We left Grand Rapids on Sunday after spending a full day packing up the installation Fugaciously. The 21' covered trailer packed and in tow behind the 29' motorhome full of Swope's headed for Lake Michigan. We spent a couple of nights at a state park just outside of Muskegon. The leaves are changing, the lake is clear and beautiful and big! Everyone keeps telling us how fortunate we are to have such great weather in October and it was great fro the kids on the beach but its not helping the surfboard I brought! The park was great but I do miss the West. The park is accessed through a rural subdivision, there are just a lot more people out here than in Idaho. In the morning we were greeted with a Park Employee clearing the oak and maple leaves off the road with a leaf blower. Rise and shine.

Nice Lake.

Did I mention we took them to the lake?

WMCAT (W Michigan Center for Arts and Technology)

S0 after 3 weeks in 250 sq. feet of motorhome with a 3 year old and 7 year old Beth and I are finding ourselves saying "because I said so!" and "because I'm your parent!" much more frequently than we do in a 2000 sq. foot house. Fortunatley Grand Rapids has a good YMCA and a couple of parks as distractions. Artprize is awesome in multiple respects but can get frustrating when checking it out with kids, there are a few entires though that enthralled us all.
John E Bunnon, Universe- the "disco ball man" as the kids say. A mannequin covered in small mirrors that slowly revolves 20-25' high on top of a windmill frame. Ok in the day but spectacular in the evening, 3 spotlights fitted with templates mimmicking the "disco man" shoot a light silhouette onto the mirrored man which is inturn projected a hundred plus fold onto the gorund and surrounding buildings. Fabulous effect, makes my top 10.

David Lindsay, Self-portrait as a Pillar- Gotta love it, depicts himself on 4 different sides of the pillar.

Finney and Cornan, Birch bark canoe- This is one of the things that makes artprize sooo cool, there is everything. Accompanying the canoe is a video detailing the entire construction.

Nik Ramage- Wall Kicker- The kids loved this one! Every 10 minutes or so an old metal (screaming) drill would fire up and activate the mechanism that would send the boots into action repeatedly kicking the wall.

Swope Kids at the gardens

Representation of the Great Lakes with water flowing from one to the next, the kids could float boats throughout the entire system.

Pond with dozens of Koi that were thinking the kids had some chow.

That's Powell of course in the background, this photo defines him.

Isabella and Powell hanging out with one of the 4 sculptures making up Julia Rogers Collective Conductivity.

Powell and another member of Collective Conductivity, all the sculptures were solar powered metal sculptures with glass heads and hearts. The interior of the hearts and the "brain" in the head was colored glass and evidently lit up at night.

Chihuly at Meijer Gardens

Dale Chihuly spent 3 years developing 15 different site specific works integrated into Meijer Gardens for their 15th anniversary.

8'-9' tall glass cylindrical "reeds" mixed in with the cattails.

Lime Crystal Tower, 25 feet tall, Beth thought it looked like giant rock candy.
The scale he works in is incredible.

Tumbleweeds made out of neon, way too cool.

Meijer Gardens

Mark Rumsey, Baldaquin- hundreds of paper "bats" casting fantastic shadows thorughout the entrance to the gardens.

Steve Dobbin, Reclamation- dozens of used 1 gal. paint cans, simple and poignant.




We spent 3 hours the other day at Meijer Gardens and sculpture park. Great place we all enjoyed. Beth loved the victorian and tropical gardens, I enjoyed the sculpture park, the kids spent half our time in the childrens garden. The experience was elevated by the addition of multiple art prize entries and Dale Chihuly pieces strategicaly placed throughout the entire park.

Fugaciously individual components

Midnight is the deadline for voting and while there is no way I will make it into the top 10 I'm still having a good time checking out the art and hanging out with my family. Artprize provided the September deadline for the completion of this edition of Fugaciously. Started this process last March with a few friends and have added several more along the way for a total of 7 of us involved in the project plus the last minute addition of a graphic artist and no flakes! Pretty cool to work with such a professional group.

Waterprize

A very powerful piece that is installed in the huge fountain at the Gerald Ford Museum. On the back side of the images of the children carrying water is a short film depicting water conditions in 3rd world countries. Kudos to the museum, I was pretty shocked that a piece like this was allowed, especially do to the critique of water usage by the museum.

Motorhome Tortilla soup

Eating out every day gets a bit expensive and restaurant fare does get old on occasion revealing the beauty of RVing. We pulled into a metered spot in downtown Grand Rapids and I threw this together from some leftover garden fresh pico de gallo, milk, blue tortilla chips and ice cream.

Over a week into our 6 week motorhome trip and the Swope family is still intact with all members present! Artprize is almost a week old now and the top 10 will be announced the morning of Thursday Sept. 30. Over 1700 artists have work in 3 square miles of downtown Grand Rapids. Every kind of work is represented: fine art, amazing contemporary art, vote getting gimmick art and kitsch that Clement Greenberg could not even imagine! Artprize is a wonderful spectacle! My work is installed at Free Spirit Worship Center, it is cool to witness a product that was pure concept less than a year ago materialize and become real! Check out a video of the work on you tube, search for Fugaciously.