2 local artists in final run for Art Prize.

GRAND RAPIDS — Two local artists are in the final 20 of the annual Art Prize competition, which is in its final day of voting.

Jilly Barnes of Pentwater ranks in the top 5 of the Three-Dimensional category. Her entry,  “Engulfed in Glass” represents four seasons on the shoreline. This large work consists of over 236 pieces of fused glass layered and installed in a manner to give the illusion of one mural.

Jilly’s piece began with an idea, transformed into a sketch, then to a prototype. Inspired by west Michigan’s shoreline, “Engulfed in Glass” depicts the coldness of a moon-washed Michigan winter relieved into a hopeful Spring morning, transitioning towards an endless Summer sunset and finally into autumn with its melancholy winds and blustering waves. The viewer is engulfed into the complexity of the installation, and reflective qualities of the glass.

Fusing techniques incorporated were multi-firings, slumping , raking and casting using iridescent glass, cathedral glass, opaque glass, frit glass, and Dichroic glass. Of course, not complete without the encapsulated dune sand and pockets of driftwood that make the Michigan shoreline so special. Jilly invites you to get “Engulfed in Glass”

Ryan Reed of Ludington is in the top 5 of the Installation category.

“Despite Similarities to Reality, This is a Work of Fiction” gestures toward a military environment, often devoid of color, as the backdrop for displaying four subsequent bodies of work under this project. It’s only when the victors or the profiteers sell their populous on the justification of war that through the consecration of ‘history’ does it become fact.

In the aggregate, 61 images convey, myth, reality, and glimpse into the scope the idea of enduring freedom. The layout represents a maze inviting the viewer to lose sight of the exits in order to fully commit to the consideration of a reality not their own – lured into a choke point – where getting out becomes difficult and the time spent within uncomfortable. Sounds of war, captured audio by the artist, bombard at a low-grade whisper where specific signals are nearly indistinguishable amidst the fog of war. The experience of the installation, within the institution of an art museum, echoes the fiction through which most Americans consume war: clean, safe, and sterile.

See more at www.artprize.org.