Inspired by a visit to the Renaissance Festival, John Conklin of Webster Township transformed an apple tree into a work of art that will be exhibited during ArtPrize next month.

Conklin created a life-sized sculpture of a dancer titled “Spill the Wine.” He submitted his sculpture to the acclaimed art show without knowing much about the competition, and has now been invited to exhibit his work at BOB in downtown Grand Rapids.

ArtPrize is an annual international art competition and cultural event that takes place from September 13 to 28. The Sun Times News caught up with Conklin to ask him about this cool opportunity.

“I didn’t know much about ArtPrize and someone told me to submit my work,” he said. “I was surprised that I made it and excited that The BOB contacted me and agreed to exhibit my sculpture.”

He said the sculpture was “inspired by a dancer I sketched at the Renaissance Festival who wore a dress made of long strips of fabric that flowed around her as she danced.”

“She showed fluid movements in her dancing and I was fascinated by it,” Conklin recalled.

Conklin’s career as an artist began after graduating from Dexter High School in 1979. He took art classes at Washtenaw Community College with Jon Onye Lockard, an American muralist, painter, professor, historian and activist who was also a founding member of the Department of Afro-American and African Studies at the University of Michigan.

“I was also just starting my career as a tile and marble painter, but I didn’t know it yet,” Conklin said with a chuckle as he looked back on that time in his life. “I continued working with tile and marble and more or less let my art grind until I returned to Washtenaw Community College in 2003 and Professor Lockhard was still teaching there. I kept taking Jon’s classes, focusing on life drawing and portrait art. Jon and I became friends and he was my mentor.”

Conklin helped Lockard restore a mural entitled “Visions of Destiny” in Mosher-Jordan Hall at the University of Michigan. Next to his signature on the mural, Lockard noted that Conklin and another student had helped him.

Conklin describes himself as an inspirational artist.

“When I see something that inspires me or an idea that interests me, I pursue it,” he said. “I’m a painter, sculptor and I sketch as often as I can and usually have a sketchbook with me.”

Conklin said that when creating his ArtPrize sculpture, the most important thing was the arrangement of the body proportions for this sculpture. He said he had an idea of ​​where her face, torso, knee and leg should be. The human figure is seven and a half to eight heads tall.

“I drew it in chalk, so I knew where everything would go before I chiseled it,” he explained. “I wanted it to look organic, like the apple tree it came from, while also being a beautiful work of art.”

Of his process, he said he sometimes worked late into the night and probably spent 300 hours making them. He said his wife would tease him and say he spent more time on his sculpture than on her.

The tree he used came from his wife’s uncle’s house.

“We have a lot of memories of that tree,” Conklin said. “It was next to the cooking area where we would make lamb shish kebabs at family gatherings. When it was time to cut it down for firewood, I just couldn’t do it because I had always liked the tree. I liked the way it twisted and moved. It looked like a dancer to me. I mean, I often see images in nature, like imaginary ones in the leaves of trees. Or, you know, a tree itself.”

The name of the piece “Spill the Wine” came to him in response to a question about his preferred way of portraying his dancer.

“I wanted her to be sensual and have a sexy, naughty side,” he said.

Of the final result, he said he wanted to show movement, so he put her on a turntable so she could spin like a dance partner.

To see the sculpture in person, you may want to attend the ArtPrize event at BOB, 20 Monroe Ave NW, in Grand Rapids.