to get into TIG welding for sanitary work,” Jackson explained. “I’ve always done something on the side,” he said. “My artwork on the side has turned into a vocation.” Some of Jackson’s most common pieces are elaborately detailed knives. Jackson began work on The Bird Cage around Easter and worked on it off and on until ArtPrize. He said when he entered the first ArtPrize, he was somewhat uncomfortable dealing with the public, but that has changed. “Talking with people about the art is my outlet,” he explained. “I wasn’t too public, but found I like talking about art.” Like Morgan, Jackson is a veteran repurposer and recycler. His piece is made entirely of scrap metal. He created the bells inside the cage from old oxygen tanks. The corner pieces are metal fence posts he twisted. He twisted 3⁄4- and 1⁄2-in. square and round tubing for the tops and sides of the cage. “I used a lot of blacksmithing techniques,” he recalled, detailing how he used a propane torch to heat the tubing so he could twist and shape it. Learn more about Jackson’s art at artprize.org/anthony-jackson and contact him at jackson@dontcutyourself. com. Conclusion Northwood Awakening — a large photographic print and quilt hybrid, depicting a woodland panorama, earned the $200,000 Public Vote Grand Prize. It was created by Ann Loveless, who also won the Public Vote Grand Prize in 2013, and her husband Steven Loveless. Higher Ground by Kate Gilmore took home the $200,000 Juried Grand Prize. This was a performance piece in which a building on Rumsey Street in Grand Rapids was painted pink and lit from within. Then a number of women identically clothed in white dresses and red shoes seated on a swing mounted from the ceiling swung in and out of an open window. Although the people we spoke with didn’t take home any of the cash awards, there is a whole category, and $25,000, devoted to three-dimensional art. The winner of the 2015 Three- Dimensional Public Vote Award ($12,500) was Fred Cogelow with his portrait carved from a single 4-in.- thick slab of butternut wood, Greatest Generation/Beta Team/November. The winner of the Three-Dimensional Juried Award ($12,500) was Julie Green’s The Last Supper, in which the artist painted death row inmates’ last meal requests onto ceramic plates. Two bronze statues of children jumping into a river, titled Reach and Splash, earned Andy Sacksteder the Public Installation Public Vote Award of $12,500. Since there are at least two categories in which welding sculptors can enter — three dimensional and public installation — you have double the reasons to start working on your entry for 2016. This year’s ArtPrize will take place between September 21 and October 9. If you are interested in participating in ArtPrize Eight, you need to be over 18 and have a space in the ArtPrize District agree to show your work. Connect with a local Grand Rapids Venue through artprize.org and find out what you need to do to apply. We bet you’re as inspired as we are after hearing about these seven artists and their use of welding. Go on, get out in the shop and try your hand at the sculpture you’ve been dreaming up! WJ MARCH 2016 / WELDING JOURNAL 43 Fig. 8 — A — Professional welder Anthony Jackson has entered a sculpture in the 3D category of every ArtPrize since the competition began in 2009. B — A closeup of the bells Jackson made from oxygen tanks that hang inside the sculpture. ANNIK BABINSKI (ababinski@aws.org) is assistant editor and MARY RUTH JOHNSEN (mjohnsen@aws.org) is editor of the Welding Journal. B
Welding Journal | March 2016
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