arts&life
art
Eye
On
The
Prize
SUZANNE CHESSLER
CONTRIBUTING WRITER
TOP AND ABOVE: Artist Steve Kay, who
is represented by Danielle Peleg Gallery,
will have his first piece exhibited at
ArtPrize 2017: Candy Cosmos.
RIGHT: Jack and Coke, part of Kenneth
Hershenson’s I DO Know Jack series,
is one of five pieces the artist has
exhibited at ArtPrize.
details
ArtPrize runs Sept. 20-Oct. 8
throughout Grand Rapids.
Artprize.org.
42
September 21 • 2017
T
wo men who have given considerable
free time to artistic projects through-
out their lives are establishing second
careers prioritizing their favorite pastimes,
mostly self-taught.
Kenneth Hershenson of Royal Oak
stepped away from his career as an archi-
tectural designer to create realistic images
using acrylics on canvas. Steve
Kay of West Bloomfield sold his
used auto dealership to devote
himself to an abstract approach
using paint and Plexiglas for
three-dimensional effects.
Both artists will display their
talents as part of this year’s
ArtPrize competition spread
across Grand Rapids from Sept.
20-Oct. 8. Hershenson is enter-
ing five images from his series I
DO Know Jack, showing them at
the JW Marriott Grand Rapids.
Kay is entering his piece Candy
Cosmos, on view at Salvatore’s
Italian Restaurant and Pizza.
ArtPrize, in its ninth year, is an open,
independently organized international com-
petition that takes place each fall in Grand
Rapids. More than $500,000 in prizes are
awarded each year as the result of separate
public and jury votes.
Any artist working in any medium from
anywhere in the world can participate. Art
is exhibited throughout downtown Grand
Rapids as hosted by museums, restaurants,
parks, theaters and offices — some is even
exhibited on bridges — among other spaces.
Artists and venues register for the com-
petition and then find each other through
jn
Two artists who’ve given up their day jobs
T
are in the running at this year’s ArtPrize.
a
an online connection process. No one at
ArtPrize selects a single artist or artwork,
directs an artist where to show work or
directs a venue about what to show.
In 2016, 1,453 works created by artists
from 40 states and 44 countries were exhib-
ited in 170 venues open to the public. The
event has attracted over 500,000 visitors in a
single year.
“In 2015, soon after being in the final
Top 25 Two-Dimensional Public Vote at
ArtPrize Seven with the first five paintings
in my series, I won the 2015 MI Great Artist
Award sponsored by Oakland County and
Park West Gallery,” says Hershenson, 64,
whose still-incomplete series has brought
other exhibit recognition, publication pres-
ence and the sale of digital rights to a casino
enterprise.
The idea for the series came to mind 30
years ago, but at that time, Hershenson was
limited in the attention he could give to
painting. Somehow, he envisioned a wheel
of cheese, thought about pepper jack cheese
and then associated the concept with toy
jacks. Soon, other jack associations entered
his thinking process, and five years ago, he
began painting them on canvas, building on
word plays.
“When I was a kid, I liked to play with
jacks,” explains the artist, who will be dis-
playing Jack of Diamonds, Jack of Clubs, Jack
and Coke and two more.
Before he began the jack theme,
Hershenson painted landscapes and still
lifes in his home studio.
Hershenson, whose family moved to
Michigan after his bar mitzvah in California,
graduated from Oak Park High School,
where he had one art class. That class fol-
lowed random classes on the West Coast
and came before various workshops.
At Michigan State University, he studied
industrial design and landscape architec-
ture in anticipation of a more practical
career.
“I like the tactile feel of a brush on can-
vas,” says Hershenson, who appreciates
the encouragement of his wife, Wendy
Shepherd, and the family gained with two
grown stepchildren. “I use open acrylics on
gallery-wrapped canvases. Open acrylics do
not dry as fast as standard acrylic paints,
and they allow me to blend colors longer
and more successfully.
“I prepare my canvases by applying white
gesso, allowing that to dry, and then sand-
ing with a fine paper. I repeat that three or
four times to attain a semi-smooth surface.
Each painting is completed with a thin coat
of clear polymer medium and then a clear
varnish.”
Beyond ArtPrize, Hershenson has lined
up other places to showcase his artistry,
including Park West Gallery in Southfield,