Here is a little film clip of the Wonder Wagon on its way to market. It is not yet finished but we have begun to use it anyway in order to understand how it works.

1 Comment 

Jesus eats with friends, originally uploaded by {studiobeerhorst}-bbmarie.

What is it about sharing the table for a meal with friends that makes the friendships burn brighter? I have been working on a book cover illustration the last couple weeks that deals with that phenomena. I love it, I love the around the table intimacy that happens when we mix conversation with shared dishes, shared thoughts, and shared physical space.

Every Sunday night up to the first week of Art Prize we have a potluck dinner at our house (106 Fuller SE) beginning at 5:30. We eat and share the vision of the Beerhorst Wonder Wagon event which is all about creating community through creativity. We are really excited about Art Prize and what it is doing to rewrite the DNA of Grand Rapids. We are looking forward to the art, the music, and the friends that will come together at our encampment on the river between Kinkos and the River for those two weeks. If you are reading this and think you would like to join our Wonder Wagon team please consider this your invitation and bring a dish to pass!

[2] Comments 

.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; } .flickr-yourcomment { } .flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; } .flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; }

print making, originally uploaded by bbmarie {studiobeerhorst}.

I have been making wood block prints all summer and selling them at the Fulton Street Artist Market on sundays along with Pearl with her wonderful pot holders and Rose with all her sock monsters, stuffies and button bracelets. It has been a great experience meeting people and sharing our work and life with them. This is a true community experience because you are side by side with other artists when the clouds suddenly release a torrent of rain and everyone scrambles to get their products to safety, or the wind starts blowing and tarps snap in the wind and paper products go sailing or stained glass goes crashing on to the pavement. I had the thought yesterday when we were setting up our tarps over our temporary shops that this is a rehearsal for when our houses are all gone and we are all living in make shift tent cities surrounded by the rubble of what use to be our city. Then what ever lessons we learned over the course of all those outside artist markets will suddenly have great value. I continue to think that these out door markets are the fore front of a culture looking for a better way to buy sell and trade as the large corporate system we inherited falls to pieces around us.

[2] Comments 

wonderwagon, originally uploaded by bbmarie {studiobeerhorst}.

This is a woodcut print logo for our Art Prize project we are in the midst of developing this summer. Our wagon is being constructed in our driveway. We are meeting every Sunday night at 5:30 for a potluck dinner. After dinner we talk about what needs to be done and develop ideas together. It has been a lot of fun learning to work together as a team and becoming better friends in the process. Every one is very talented and comes with a unique point of view which makes the project that much richer.

One of the things I am working on now is lining up musicians for the two weeks that our encampment will be in place between the Grand River and Kinkos/FedEx. These performances will be in the evenings between 6 and 8. Nobody’s Darling, Dave Molinari, The Brothers of Folk, Daniel Holland and Karisa Wilson are among some of the performers already committed.

We are really excited about the momentum we feel building and look forward to were this journey will take us.

have a comment? 

make a nest, originally uploaded by bbmarie {studiobeerhorst}.

I think about nests this morning. I think about creating places where people feel safe to be them selves and let their personalities unfurl. I want to live at the Chelsea Hotel on 23rd Street in NY,NY but I can’t because I live here in Grand Rapids, MI on Fuller Street. I love the Chelsea because it has been a home and refuge for so many creative people and projects over the years. When you step into the lobby the history is palpable. I would like our home to be a place like that where people of all kinds are welcome to come and a place to reach more deeply into what their capable of, a place where mistakes and miss deeds are gracefully absorbed in a sponge of love, a place where the membrane that separates heaven from earth is dangerously thin and permeable. This is the nest I want to help weave and this is the nest I want to live out of.

[3] Comments