Toothpick Man, Near End of the Beach Regional

Keith Schon

Toothpicks, photo by Svenneman

I had a lot of fun last year participating in Balsa Man: volunteering at the Cafe, driving my RC art car around.  But the fact of the matter is, hauling all that stuff all the way to the far end of the beach is a pain in the ass.  It takes a lot of time, preparation, and endurance.  And all the “coping” — sand in my shoes, trying hard to find people… geeze!  I can’t do that every year.

This year, I want there to be an alternative for all those people who can’t get their act together in time for Balsa Man.  I intend to hold an even tinier event:  ”Toothpick Man”.  This will be held in the parking lot, or at the base of the stairs, depending on  circumstances.  The scale for this event will be approximately 1/5 that of Balsa Man, (i.e. 1/80 scale).  It will involve creature-comforts that are simply not available at the far end of the beach.

Grant requested:  $5 * 1/5 = $1

Simply bitsy brilliant Keith! We are more than happy to award you your grant of $1 and we will also be sending you a 1/5th size official regional certificate.

“we and our 1/3 scale son would like to bring The Ghost of the Balsa Man. He will be made of straws and tissue paper and can fly after the man burn, aided in flight by balloons. We’d like enough for helium to fill balloons to raise the man.

achemical and baby bot“

The Ghost of Balsa Man

One thing that worries us about this project is that the world’s supply of Helium is running out. But we overcame our worries—it is only a wafer thin amount of helium. Not knowing how much it costs to fill balloons, we decided to award a grant of $8 to match the width of the project.

Lo and behold, but what did the BPAF get in the mail but a grant request from J.D. & Logan for Tiny Tropolis’s smaller cousin Teeny Tropolis! No worries about supporting a project that was too large for their box dimensions are a wee 3.2 x 1.4 x 1.5 cm. Also we all applaud their choice of postcard—they really know how to stab into our hearts!

Congratulations J.D. & Logan for your grant award of $2! Unfortunately, none of the BPAF Art grant committee had the two dollar bill you specifically requested, but we will send your grant along as soon as we get one.

Congratulations Matt Whatley for being awarded for your full art grant request of $30 ($20 for construction and $10 for SPLODEY)!

Slightly Impolite Awakening (front)

Slightly Impolite Awakening (back)

Craigslist Counterfeit Balsa Man Ticket

Looks like our previous post about counterfeit Balsa Man tickets don’t reach out to enough people. We’ve unfortunately found two people on craigslist who didn’t get the message and are looking for Balsa Man tickets.

More alarming we ran across one scammer trying to hoodwink the small minded by selling an obvious counterfeit ticket (see photo).

Also, in our search, we found someone looking for a ride to Balsa Man—we do recommend ride sharing.

Remember folks THERE ARE NO BALSA MAN TICKETS. Balsa Man is purely DONOR SUPPORTED.

Truly Support Tiny Art Through Donations

I know that the utter amazingness of the Balsa Man event can seem unbelievable at times. With all the hucksters online it’s hard to know what to believe these days.

However, know this: we truly do use the proceeds from donations and the sale of patchs, stickers, and engraved x-acto boxes to support tiny artists…

• Every Donor get’s an official letter of donor recognition and a gift depending on their level of donation (see donor award gifts)
• Every Tiny Artist who is awarded a grant is sent a letter of confirmation along with their grant award money and a gift of a Balsa Man sticker (see tiny art grants).
• Donations also pay for materials and supplies for Tiny Art Build Parties.
• The BPAF Art Grant budget relies on you the donor to support tiny art. The more you donate the more tiny art we can support!

Remember last year there was such a high demand for patches that we ran out a couple weeks prior to the event. This year, we made more swank limited edition patches but we still expect to run out and once they run out we won’t make any more. So to get yours donate today!

Tonight, the BPAF will be mailing out all art grant awards and the gift packages to all the donors who’ve given thus far. If you donate today your gift package will be included in this shipment; next shipment won’t be until next week.

The BPAF didn’t really know what to make of this art project: The Cafe That Wanted To Be Art, by QueGee. We respect that it obviously has a lot of meaning for QueGee who says that “I built her for 8 years in homage to ‘Burning Time’  and now I want to give her a proper sendoff!” However, no one on the BPAF committee knew what this Burning Time was nor could they fathom why a cafe would require to be continuously under construction for 8 years. Nevertheless we did like the idea of a roving cafe and appreciated that this strange little project truly meant something to QueGee.

Thus, the BPAF unanimously voted with a shrug* to award QueGee a tiny art grant!

The Cafe That Wanted To Be Art (front)

The Cafe That Wanted To Be Art (back)

* The BPAF bylaws state that any vote with a shrug cannot be awarded a full grant; thus, we sent intern “hotpants” to check the price for QueGee’s requested materials:

• Construction Paper (2 packs): $3.29 x 2
• Pack of 250 toothepicks: $0.99
• Dental Floss: $1.79
• Additional Balsa Wood: $5

Total Tiny Art Grant Award: $14.36

Congratulations QueGee!

“I’ve stack of post-it’s where I write every minor quibble and fleeting frustration I’ve had through out the past year! Only by watching the tiny temple burn will I be able to find closure on each and every one of these 200 annoyances… oh wait make that 200 and 1″
~ Johnny Driftwood

Well Johnny, we are happy to announce that not only will there will be a temple this year, but it is being built by the same artists that built the Temple of Reduced Expectations in 2008! The amazing team of J-Rad & SparkleBottom, who were also part of the Balsa Man Kcrew, have taken on the task of building a beautiful structure that will assuage at least a handful of your limited grievances:

The Templini of Flux!

Templini of Flux (front)

Templini of Flux (back)

The Black Pebble Arts Foundation has awarded the Templini of Flux the full amount requested, $20, which is the largest grant we’ve handed out this year! The BPAF would like to support other star projects at this high amount but we won’t be able to without your support. So please donate today to support more of the tiny art you love and get your own Balsa Man 2010 patch and sticker!

We are all truly excited and can’t wait to see it standing proud on la playa. Construction has already begun on the Templini and you can see the detail and care going into it from this photo posted by J-Rad.

Templini under construction, by J-Rad

The committee was divided on this one. First off, the BPAF has never before awarded an art grant for a bar before, and this was especially an issue here since the request was unapologetically for the “finest libations Trader Joe’s can offer.” Secondly, we don’t know how old this Douglas Worley is, for all we knew he’s some twilight emo kid and we could get in trouble for encouraging underaged drinking.

In the end, the BPAF decided award the grant on both it’s merit’s and it’s novelty being the first grant we’ve ever gotten from Austin, Texas. However, we are only awarding it only for purchase of toothpicks, which we did a search for and you can buy a pack of 2500 craft toothpicks for $1.82 on Walmart.com. Also, since we think you’re a nice kid, we’ll toss in another couple bucks so you can buy a juice box—bringing your total grant award to $3.82!

Congratulations Douglas! I’m sure your Toothpick Vampire Bar will be the best vampire bar on la playa! Oh and try not to sparkle too much, it creates a lot of moop.

Distinguished artist and musician Fred Rinne

Lo and behold, what did we receive in the mail but a letter from the esteemed stained glass artist and distinguished ducterido musician Fred Rinne. Opening the letter we found an art grant proposal for the Balsa Man Opera, a 10 (or 15) minute opera “vaguely relevant to Forging and Village themes!”

Now normally we prefer postcards but this was an exception and it’s only fitting that the grant request for an opera be sent as a letter. It was a unanimous vote* to award Fred Rinne $5 and whatever glowsticks we can find towards the Balsa Man Opera!

Opera Casting

In keeping with the fleeting nature of Balsa Man, Fred will be casting actors and musicians for the opera at the Balsa Man event immediately prior to the performance. If you are a musician with an accordion  or other suitable instrument or have a good singing voice, please bring yourself and your instrument. If you would like to contact him earlier, he will also likely be at the Oakland Tiny Art Build Party making props for the Opera.

*as long as you count the committee member Razorwire who, after showing up late, told us all what he thought of Opera with a simple finger gesture—his arm was raised though so under our bylaws it counted.

• “misc tiny combustables”
• “neighborhood”
• “The Forged City”
• “transformed by fire”

The BPAF grant committee vote was unanimous with most agreeing that the quoted words fit perfectly with the Balsa Man event, and one member who voted yes purely on the quality of the paper stock (Strathmore Imperial Watercolor 140lb Cold Press).

As a result, the Black Pebble Arts Foundation is proud to announce it’s first tiny art grant award of $5 to Nara Brados for her project Tiny Bed of Roses!

*UPDATE TO GRANT GUIDELINES: As a direct result of this proposal, the BPAF has now revised their grant proposal guidelines and the word limit is now 100–150 words in order to reduce eyestrain and work place injuries.