The 'Formula' picks its finalists

[Bill Fischer]

1. Lights in the Night (Mark Carpenter and Dan Johnson)

2. Elephants (GRAM)(Adonna Khare)

3. Song Of Lift (UICA birds)(Martin Van Wagtendonk

4. Rebirth of Spring (Amway Grand)(Frits Hoendervanger)

5. City Band (GRAM)(Chris Laporte) 

6. Origami Kumi Yamashita

7. Life In Wood (small animal sculptures at BOB)(Dan Heffron)

8. Stick-to-it-ive-ness (horses in the river)(Richard Morse)

9. The Chase (Wolves and Moose at Ford)(Andrew Harris, Paul Thompson, Joseph Miles, Dennis Harris, Jamie Outman)

10. Return to Eden"by Sandra Bryant at Public Museum
 

Lights in the Night is a great surprise. It does not fit my formula at all and that's fine by me. Although there is much to be learned by looking at and analyzing the data (vote), I don't think anyone wishes for ArtPrize to become overly predictable.

At this point in the prediction game, things like location, size and first impression seem less important. Also, I have added a new line item to the formula... illusion and magic. I think it's what carried 'Life in Wood'. 'Origami', 'Rebirth of Spring' and 'Lights in the Night' to the fore. 'Lights in the Night' for instance, completely reconstructed the the night sky in a participatory bit of magical illusion that came, then went , then froze in time through pictures. Looking back at the previous three years I have found a number of past winners that also work with illusion and magic: Eric Daigh's thumbtack art, and Under Construction, the living statues by Robert Shangle , for instance.