thing three dimensional with her hands. “I like getting dirty and seeing steel come out polished after I’ve put it together. I can get lost in it,” she added. Once she began welding, Dionne changed her major from painting to sculpture. She worked at the Cascade Gallery in Grand Rapids for 15 years, and her work is sold there today. As a Grand Rapids local, Dionne has participated in three years of Art- Prize, all with her welded sculptures. In 2010, she entered a large piece called Birth’s Embrace and in 2012 she entered a tabletop piece called Celerity. Dionne’s 2015 entry, Livin’ the Dream, was displayed on the front lawn of the Women’s Club of Grand Rapids — Fig. 6. Dionne also makes and sells abstract fish and tabletop pieces made out of stainless steel that she sources at local scrapyards. She loves the adventure of going to steel yards and looking for what her first sculpture instructor, Ron Peterson, called ‘Hummers’ — those pieces of steel she chooses at the yard that hum to her and ask to be made into something. You can find Dionne’s work at etsy.com/shop/LisaBurrows. Donald and Dianna Rau ArtPrize Six in 2014 was supposed to be one and done for Don Rau, who could scratch it off his bucket list and then move on to something else. After all, ArtPrize can require quite a commitment of time and money. (While artists are not required to attend, they are encouraged to do so to interact with the public.) So it was supposed to be a one-time adventure; that is, until his wife began watching children and their teachers file off school buses to see the artwork at the DeVos Place Convention Center where his stainless steel sculpture Assembly Line was displayed. That gave Dianna the idea for their ArtPrize Seven entry, Field Trip to First Park Church, a whimsical collection of 13 ant “people” heading off to view the art on display at First Park Congregational Church. The couple collaborated on the pieces, with Don doing the fabricating and Dianna suggesting some of their personalities, and taking care of their Fig. 7 — A — The idea for Donald and Dianna Rau’s Field Trip to First Park Church came from watching children alight from school buses during their first ArtPrize entry in 2014. They named the “children” after their grandchildren. B — Some of the children heading off to see the art at First Park Congregational Church. The Raus entered their sculpture in the Public Installation category because they felt the new rose garden at the church would influence how visitors would view their work. MARCH 2016 / WELDING JOURNAL 41 A B
Welding Journal | March 2016
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