Suzanne Forbes was there creating her largest sculpture yet, a huge phoenix. You may remember Suzanne from some of her gorgeous works from years prior like the magnificent Balsa Betty.

Many tiny artists were thankful for the balsa wood and tools provided by the Black Pebble Arts Foundation — which we were able to provide thanks to our donors! New tiny artists such as Tom Cauchois were able to show up with only a ounce of an idea and leave with a finished art project!

At the end of the evening Tom had finished his COLINWOOD sign. We interviewed Tom and he had this to say…

My affection for Balsa Man triggered the connection in my brain and heart to combine a “take” on the famous “Harveywood” sign, the name of Colin, founder of Balsa Man, and how his passion for art has turned Baker Beach into a thriving tinytropolis full of art.  I also hoped to create an art platform that would honor all of the fabulous artists whose works have thrilled me since my arrival on baker beach for the first time.

Granted we have no idea what this “famous Harveywood sign” is — when pressed he said it was a in-joke among Black Rock Desert campers — but hey at least it means something to Tom.

The BPAF looks forward to seeing all this tiny art and more at this year’s Balsa Man!

You can donate via WePay using your bank account or a credit card using the button below. Note that the same donor award levels apply so you will get stickers and patches according to your donation level.

IMPORTANT: Saturday Aug 28th at 6pm is the cut off date if you want your donor awards delivered prior to the main event. We will still ship awards for donations after this date but we cannot guarantee that you will get them in time.

Due to the minute amounts of these goals, donations can only be made in person (either directly to the artist or to a BPAF representative). We are beginning this wonderful program with two Teenystarters:

Teenystarter: The Cafe That Wanted To Be Art (Goal: $10.64)

Due to the BPAF shrug bylaw The Cafe That Wanted To Be Art did no get the full funding they requested. In order to make up the $10.64, QueGee has announced she will be raising funds at this Sunday’s San Francisco Tiny Art Build Party.

Of course, admission to Tiny Art Build Party is free. The CTWTBA Fundraiser will be hosted at the same location, with suggested donation of separate sliding scale of 1¢–25¢ per person with all proceeds going to the CTWGBA Teenystarter. QueGee will also be accepting small donations for her teenystarter in person prior to the event.

Teenystarter: Black Rock Balsa Man Regional (Goal: $20)

Steve Courtney will be having a fundraiser for the Black Rock Balsa Man Regional and his small camp Fandango this Thursday, 6-10pm, at The Sycamore (2140 Mission Street, SF).

Voluntary admission fee at the door, (pay whatever you want) and that will get you Happy Hour prices all night. If you come down and donate a few bucks to us at the door, you get to knock a buck off your beer and/or wine all night. Also, PBR is $2 and Miller High Life is $3. A percentage of the door donations go to the Black Rock Regional Teenystarter; the rest goes to Fandango so they can afford to buy a camp chair or two.

In addition: there will be a Balsa Man Regional “Build-Night” in the back yard. You can come down and build tiny art to be burned in the desert, even if you aren’t going. (Tiny art materials will be supplied, but feel free to bring your own if you have a specific project in mind.)

Fandango & Black Rock Balsa Regional Fundraiser Happy Hour
Thursday, Aug 19th, 6pm-10pm
The Sycamore (2140 Mission Street, SF)

UPDATE:

The BRD Balsa Man Regional received it’s first Teenystarter relatively large donor! Carnivillian, photographer and blogger of TheBlight.net has donated $6.66 towards their meager goal!

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.

Last year, of the 33 tiny artists who applied for tiny art grants only one was turned down—I can’t remember why they were declined but I’m sure the BPAF committee had a good reason. And yet we couldn’t help but notice that there were a number of tiny artists who brought tiny art to Balsa Man yet didn’t submit for a tiny art grant. We encourage all tiny artists to submit grants for this years Balsa Man for there is no better way to be inspired and to inspire others than to see your awarded grant enshrined on the Balsa Blog!

Proposals should be sent to the BPAF on a postcard with a 100–200 word description and/or sketch of your tiny art project. The BPAF committee prefers to receive postcards in the mail; however, we do accept scanned postcard proposals or digital artwork. Please contact gro.namaslabnull@tra for the mailing address. For more details on how to submit for a grant is on the Tiny Art & Grants page.

And remember the tiny art budget depends on you! Donate to the BPAF to support tiny artists!

And yes Balsa Man 2010 Patchs & Stickers are in production!

Pants Are Necessary Things - Seriously!

We, the Citizens who think Pants Are Necessary Things, Seriously! (PANTS) are concerned that tiny-person nudity is an epidemic sweeping the nation, causing wanton licentiousness, suggestive hoopla, blindness, and a corruption of the morals of our most precious asset, the children! Some little people have been known to lie around for days, weeks, nay sometimes months completely naked! I shudder to think what sort of lascivious thoughts might come unbidden to the unformed and malleable mind of a child who unwittingly happens upon such an obscene display! With just a tiny $2.69 donation for a tiny cause, you can ensure that such a scene will never mar the dignity and minuscule majesty that is Balsa Man! PANTS will fight tiny-person pantslessness with several specially-developed tools, including our PANTS Trebuchet and our PANTS Cannon, designed to render the pantsless incapable of exposing their hairless, bland crotches to the unguarded eyes of innocents. We will provide pants to any tiny-person without them, and will “convince” those who might be obstinate with the use of our arsenal.

In the name of decency,

Signed, The Puny Pants Posse, aka The Society of Pants for the Wee, aka What Part of Pants Don’t You Understand!

At first, the BPAF art grant review committee was hesitant to award monetary funds to “theme camps,” lest these “theme camps” become popular and get out of hand. However, we can all agree that pants are a necessary thing, and the word alone makes one giggle. Puny Pants Posse: APPROVED. pantspantspants!

YOU CAN PANTS IF YOU WANT TO – YOU CAN LEAVE YOUR PANTS BEHIND

And if you do happen to leave your pants behind, the Puny Pants Posse would also like to invite you to “The Party In Our Pants” which will take place at Balsa Man, from 6:30 pm to 7:30 pm. Pantsocolodas will be served – BYO tiny reusable cup! Come admire the wall of tiny pants (pantitos?) and fire a pair of slacks from the pants trebuchet!

Anyway, we had Joseph check the Balsa Man bylaws and it doesn’t say anything about how many temples Balsa Man is supposed to have. So, Balsa Man 2009 might go down as the year of the dueling temples: The Temple of Minor Irregularities Vs. the Temple of Pet Peeves.

Congratulations Sophia & Ray! The BPAF has granted you a tiny art grant of $2 for your Temple of Pet Peeves or whatever it is you are planning on building.

Now remember we gave you a grant so uh… if the gnomes tell you to do anything bad to us—or our pets—don’t listen to them!

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!

As unfortunate as this is, we did not fret long for in the mail we found this joyful grant proposal!

A homage to bit Michael Christian and Cute Overload! I didn’t know that was even possible! Our dispair dissipated, everyone on the BPAF grant review committee instantly raised their hands in favor of awarding Rachel and her art project Fleck a tiny art grant of $5.

UPDATE

Rachel has already crafted her adorable Fleck which can be seen here: Fleck on Flickr