We are proud to award the first Tiny Art Grant of $5 to Diana Thompson for her tiny art project House on Fire. Diana’s art project struck a cord with every member of the BPAF review board because it would make an beautiful art project both on a small scale and a large scale. There is so much more we could say about her charming project, but instead we will let her proposal speak for itself.

[ CLICK IMAGE TO ENLARGE ]

Again, thank you Diana for your wonderful submission!

We greatly encourage all Balsa Man tiny artists to send us a grant request via postcard. Every grant request we receive fills our hearts with joy! And we would not want to disappoint our growing pool of donors who I know would all like to see more tiny art!

We had a fabulous donation of $20 from @edrabbit (member of Interpretive Arson and creator of a miniature Dance Dance Immolation for last year’s inaugural Balsa Man). This year, he hopes that his donation might fund an artist to create a miniature version of 2πr.
We have also heard from a few artists already who are interested in creating tiny art, but we have yet to receive any formal grant requests. Participation is what makes Balsa Man grand so send us your art proposals!

Oh, come on. You know you wanna build something. Become inspired and then head on over to Tiny Art & Grants to read our Tiny Art Guidelines on how to apply for a Tiny Art Grant.

Remember, this year’s Balsa Man theme is “Big Dreams Writ Small” — art on a scale manageable to all. Your art project can be a wholely new creation that has never seen the light of day, or it can be based on art already baptised by alkali dust. Above all, your art should inspire YOU; art which you would love create on a grand scale but cannot. Take your inspiration, miniturize it, and bring it to Balsa Man…

and then set it on fire…

or not. While we do enjoy fire, we understand that not all art must be set aflame to be meaningful.

Last year was the first Balsa Man. It was a small, short, but nonetheless grand event. I don’t know what I loved best between the adorable tiny trash fence, the Temple of Reduced Expectations, the bubblegum pink Buddha sculptures, the Diminutive Dance Dance Immolation, the Psychic Pizza Delivery, the Balsa Man Burn itself, or the joyous participation of all who came!

If you missed last years Balsa Burn, you can experience it through the numerous photos and video of Balsa Man 2008:

• Balsa Man 2008 Flickr pool
• EdRabbit’s Balsa Man 2008 photos
• EdRabbit’s videos (Balsa Man Burn, DDI Burn)
• The Temple Burn (video)
• Romzelino’s photos
• ~Jeanne~’s photos
• ebisue’s photos
• Jay Bain’s photos

p.s. Also check out EdRabbit’s own blog post wrap up of the event on Geeked Info.

Video of the glorious burn:

We encourage everyone to make this year’s Balsa Man the best Balsa Man ever by participating: Create tiny art, join the Balsa DPW, host a Balsa Build Night, become a writer for the Balsa Blog, donate to the Black Pebble Arts Foundation.

If you are interested in making tiny art for Balsa Man 2009 “Big Dreams Writ Small” please visit Tiny Art & Grants—that’s right we will be offering grants to select tiny artists!

Follow the Balsa Blog for more news and events as Balsa Man approaches. Also you can follow us on twitter @balsaman.