Scottville native creates cork art for TBS television

By Rob Alway. Editor-in-Chief.

Scottville native and Grand Rapids-based artist Scott Gundersen has been gaining some attention in Los Angeles lately, which means he will also soon gain national attention. Gundersen was commissioned to create a wine cork mural to promote the TBS comedy TV show “Cougar Town,” which starts Courtney Cox.

He recently returned to Grand Rapids after spending a week in LA.

Gundersen, who is an art teacher at Wayland schools, south of Grand Rapids, is gaining a reputation for his wine cork creations. He has been gained some publicity the past few years with his work in Art Prize. He is a 1997 graduate of Mason County Central High School and earned a bachelor’s degree from Western Michigan University in 2002. He lives in Grand Rapids with his wife Jeanne and their two daughters.

His artwork is held by museums, corporations and private collections across three continents.

MCP: How did you involved with this project?

SG: “TBS was looking for a creative way to promote the new season of “Cougar Town” and so an advertising agency out of Los Angeles was researching different types of art that was wine related. They came across my wine cork portraits on the Internet and contacted me about working with them on this project.”

MCP: How long have you been working on it?

SG: I have been talking with the advertising agency since October working on coming up with a good image and working on specifics of what building the piece will entail.

MCP: Where’s it located?

SG: Currently the piece is on display at the Grove Los Angeles, an upscale mall in LA. After the new year, it will be taken apart — as it is in six pieces — and I will have to reassemble it in Atlanta, where it will be on permanent display in the lobby of Turner corporate headquarters.

MCP: What’s the size of the piece?

SG: It is 10 feet tall and 24 feet long. I used more than 50,000 wine corks.

MCP: How has the response been?

SB: So far it has been great. I created the piece live at the outdoor mall and people loved watching the process and stopping back to check on my progress over the course of the week. In a couple days TBS will be putting out a 2 minute making-of video. It will also promote the upcoming season of “Cougar Town.” A couple of the actors from the show also stopped by and checked it out, which was fun.

MCP: Why wine corks?

SG: In 2007 I was travelling across the hills of central Africa and was impressed with the resourcefulness and ingenuity of the people I met in village after village. I loved how they wasted nothing, every item, whether an old water bottle or broken shoelace was re-purposed in some creative way. Back home, over a bottle of wine (or three) I was playing with the used corks on the table, inspired by the trip, the wine and the corks, an idea was born. Since then I have been creating wine cork murals and drinking far too much wine.