Don't Fuck with Paul Balsa Bunyan by Rubin Starset

Sunday marked the first annual Tiny Shanty’s Tiny Fire Arts Festival! It was the first Balsa Regional of 2010 and the first ever Midwest Balsa Regional. The regional balsa burn also marked the closing of the magical Tiny Shanty and which was one of the star attractions at the Art Shanty Project, an art festival on the beautiful frozen Medicine Lake.

Cali “Starfive” Mastny was the organizer and creative mastermind behind the entire Tiny Fire Arts Festival including the amazing Paul Balsa Bunyan! I was especially tickled to see that her majestic Tiny Star Tree which had been at both the Black Rock Balsa Regional and the Balsa Man main event was also in appearance in the Tiny Shanty! For her amazing dedication and hard work, I personally presented her a tiny check from the Black Pebble Arts Foundation for $20!

The Minneapolis Burn Report!

by Colin Fahrion
Near dusk, the excited participants converged for the Tiny Fire Arts Festival as snow gently drifted down. The amazingly detailed Paul Balsa Bunyan Man was raised upon a beautiful metal petal which rested—naturally—upon stack of logs. Near the foot of the Balsa Bunyan Man, small matchstick men gathered.

The murmurs in the crowd soon turned to an uproar as the tiny fire conclave sauntered forth swinging their puny fire poi and stubby fire staffs! It was an exciting performance—I must say both in numbers and skill the six member Minneapolis fire conclave bested the two member Balsa Man conclave.

After the tiny fire performance, Cali stepped forth and lit Paul Balsa Bunyan. Like the Balsa Man burn, it was a chaotic firey and explosive feast for the eyes which was both all too brief yet still rich and fulfilling. As the fireworks died down, the crowd ran forward lit their tiny sparklers and ran around the embers!

It wasn’t over though as other tiny art was on hand including:

• The magnificent Temple of Modest Ability, by possibly maybe famous David Just-Ok
• The Scornicorn, a mean balsa unicorn with a vicious red tipped horn, by Rubin Starset
• The lovely Tiny Dangles mobile by Rachel

It was a magical amazing tiny burn, everyone walked away with smiles on their faces. Personally, I was overjoyed by it all and came away brimming with fresh ideas about how to improve Balsa Man itself. I thank Cali Mansty, the Tiny Shanty crew, and all the wonderful Minneapolis Balsa Burners who I met and made me feel at home. I came home to San Francisco creatively inspired and many a friend richer.

More photos & video:

• Tiny Fire Arts Festival video (same video embeded above; Vimeo link)
• Rubin’s Tiny Fire Arts Festival flickr set
• Strangepuppy’s Tiny Fire Arts Festival flickr set
• Starfive’s Tiny Shanty 4th Weekend flickr set

Celebrating all that is small, the Tiny Shanty Project will be hosting the first ever Tiny Fire Arts festival in Minneapolis, MN on the beautiful frozen Medicine Lake! The Tiny Festival will mark the end of the amazing Art Shanty Projects which the Tiny Shanty was apart. The Tiny Fire Arts Festival also marks what is the first of many Balsa Regionals to happen in 2010!

Tiny Shanty’s Tiny Fire Arts Festival

Sunday February 7th, dusk

A tiny art festival dedicated to the great art of small proportions. Take a stroll through our tiny (frozen) garden of art, and then join us for the burn. We will set afire an approximately two foot tall figure of art, appropriate to Minnesota, as well as any other tiny art people would like to burn.

Tiny Shanty itself is a lovely minute mansion out on the ice. The inside of the shanty is cozy and also doubles as a gallery space for a number of tiny art pieces contained within it’s walls. It was crafted by an amazing team of artists including the fabulous Balsa Man tiny artist and tiny grant recipient Cali Mastny, aka Star5, who crafted the beautiful Tiny Star Tree!

The Tiny Star Tree is especially significant as it was the only piece of tiny art to appear at both the Black Rock Balsa Regional and the main Balsa Man event! All of us here at the Balsa Man organization are thrilled to see such a talented tiny artist go on to produce such hugely diminutive art!

I myself, Colin Fahrion, am overjoyed as I will be heading out to Minneapolis this Friday to take part in the wonder of the Tiny Shanty and the Tiny Fire Arts Festival! Stay tuned to the Balsa Blog as I will be writing about my experience and plan on interviewing Cali and the rest of the Tiny Shanty team!

Also, rumor has it that a special press conference is planned this weekend in Minneapolis where the Balsa Man 2010 theme may possibly be announced!

Written by Kristen Ankiewicz, Balsa Man Regional Lead and Czarina of Tiny Art.

Balsa Man Regional was, by all accounts, a fabulous little event. At 5pm, in front of Ardent Heavy Industries (3:50 and Adapt), a crowd grew around the collection of tiny art that had yet to be unpacked. Earlier that day one of the Giant Man KCrew delivered an actual Toe of the Man. Rumor has it that “The Toe” is a leftover piece of lumber from That Other Man.

Tiny Star Tree (photo by Kristen Ankiewicz)

The population clearly wanted to be involved, and several volunteers quickly began building the L’il Trash Fence. We assembled The Toe with the L’il Balsa Man Head, not too far from the L’il Temple. We joked about having the man “from head to toe”. Silliness abounded. Cali brought her Tiny Star Tree, which added considerable class and swank to the event. The Tiny Star Tree was an art piece with many adventures in its future, since it was the only piece to attend both the Regional and the actual Balsa Man event.

After a tiny portion of an hour, we began the arduous task of digging mini-trenches for the Tiny 2piR. However, our spoons wouldn’t make a dent in the playa, so we decided to leave the fire effects above ground. That worked fine for everyone, because mere moments later a couple of tiny drunken slugs and a l’il raver penguin were on the platform. We’re not sure where the tiny bottle of Jose Cuervo came from but it turns out everyone dances better when drunk.

BRD Balsa Regional Participants (photo by Kristen Ankiewicz)

The beauty of the Regional was the high level of participation from attendees. People started rearranging the tiny attendees (mostly slugs, penguins, and frogs). Smuckles von Smee and several of his slug friends were enjoying the event from the ground level.  A couple of Regional rangers kept order around the perimeter. Many photographers were taking photos with macro lenses. I doubled as media volunteer, and gave attendees carte blanche to document the heck out of the Regional. Of course we reminded everyone that in keeping with the spirit of the main event, BALSA MAN REGIONAL RETAINS ALL RIGHTS TO ALL THUMBNAILS OF ANY PHOTOGRAPHY, VIDEO, OR FILM THAT IS TAKEN AT THE EVENT. Several people with bullhorns helped narrate for those who weren’t as close to the front lines.

About half an hour into the event, it could only be described as wonderful, beautiful chaos. The Garden of Tiny Delights evolved (as it should) beyond my initial designs. The attendees of the Regional moved the little frogs and penguins out to the trash fence; the zombie penguin was poised to attack the Temple; the Obelisk was placed out by L’il Mural. The S&M penguins embodied radical self-expression, and were causing quite a stir with their public flogging—scandalous! Tiny parachuters landed onto the playa, dust storms started kicking up thanks to Rubin’s can of compressed air, and people started clamoring to burn things. Alas, one of the little parachuters landed funny, but after some quick thinking by Eddie (a Regional burner), a tiny helicopter came to medi-vac the injured little parachuter guy out of there.

Balsa Man Regional - Head to Toe (photo by Neil Girling)

At 5:45 the event culminated with the burning of the L’il Man + Toe. Although he’s made of balsa and kitchen matches, we decided to douse him in fuel just to make sure he’d really burn. All it took was a carefully aimed magnifying glass to set the thing ablaze. For a few minutes it was calm enough for one of the attendees to toast a marshmallow. Pretty soon a raucous group of people started chanting and dancing in a circle around the L’il Man, and one or two people even jumped over him.

Finally, at nearly 6, we burned the L’il Temple. The crowd grew solemn, with various people hushing and shushing and yelling DOWN IN FRONT. I believe a few tears were shed. We doused the structure in fuel, and used Edrabbit’s flame effect/flame thrower to light it on fire. Laughter erupted as the flaming ball of temple flew ten feet off the platform onto the playa. I doubled as DPW and cleaned up all the ashes.

Lots of people exchanged hugs and vowed to come back next year, with more art, and more ideas. Perhaps we’ll recruit a pyrotechnics expert to strap down the burning items.

This completely beautiful and well designed grant proposal came to us all the way from Minneapolis, MN! Sadly, Cali Mastny won’t be able to bring her Tiny Star Tree to Balsa Man as it’s a bit far—she’d only able to make it to the regional event in Black Rock Desert.

We wish her well in the dust of the desert and the BPAF is very proud to award her $5 for to make her Tiny Star Tree a reality!

Far from the cool, sandy shores of San Francisco, the Black Rock Desert in Nevada is called home by many artistically inspired individuals. While this alkali desert is far away, ideas have a power to reach farther and faster than any Cruise America RV could ever hope.

And it is this small idea—the tiny yet wonderous idea of Balsa Man—which has flown across state lines, through Donner Pass, past the garish lights of the Peppermill Casino and taken root in the mind of at least one dust-covered creative soul.

We are pround to announce the first…

Black Rock Desert,
Balsa Man Regional

Host: Ardent Heavy Industries
(at 4:00 and Adapt)
Date: Friday, September 4th
(Labor Day Weekend)
Time: 5 to 6 pm

Join your fellow lovers of all things tiny at the Black Rock Desert!

Are you driving all the way up to the middle of nowhere in the Nevada desert, with nothing to do? Do you have a tiny art piece that would be perfect at Balsa Man but can’t make it all the way to the main event in San Francisco? Then head over to the official Black Rock Desert Balsa Man Regional!

Tiny Artists and other participants are welcome, email BRDregional@balsaman.org for more details.

Kristen Ankiewicz, Balsa Regional Lead & Czarina of Tiny Art

Kristen Ankiewicz will be taking the helm as Balsa Man Regional Lead and Czarina of Tiny Art.

It seems that tiny art leads to big titles. This is all of course in addition to being in her own right artist extraordinaire and mastermind behind the cute and tiny monstrosities all for show at her site Monsters.net. You can find her at Camp Ardent Heavy Industries (4:00 and Adapt) for other questions.

I, your humble guest Balsa Blogger will be another Balsa Man Tiny Art Festival — Black Rock Desert Regional Contact. (see what we mean about long titles?) I will be camping with Rathskellar, placement as yet to be determined.

If you will be missing out on the Balsa Burn on Saturday, September 5th in San Francisco, because you’ll be up at that other playa then come on over to Ardent and party with us on Friday.

And please, apply for a tiny art grant to bring some tiny art to the first Black Rock Desert, Balsa Man Regional

Facebook event page

Balsa Man Regional call for artists!

The Balsa Man Black Rock Desert Regional does not yet have a central figure! Kristen is looking for artists who would like to build the BRD Balsa Regional’s “Balsa Man” effigy. The central figure does not have to mimic the original “Balsa Man” but it should be inspiring. If you would like to build the BRD Balsa Regional’s central figure please contact BRDRegional@balsaman.org