The Black Pebble Arts Foundation is proud to award it’s first tiny art grant to a Balsa Regional art project! Kristen Ankiewicz, our Black Rock Desert Regional Lead, has been hard at work making tiny art for the Balsa Man BRD Regional.

While we have no idea why she wants to go all the way out to the desert we applaud her for her motivation to give fellow desert campers something to do out there in that boring expanse of nothingness.

In fact Kristen has been so amazingly prolific she has sent us two art proposals both of which the BPAF art review committee has considered worthy of award.

Garden of Tiny Delights

Balsa Man Regional’s first ever Garden of Tiny Delights! Like the Hieronymous Bosch triptych! Depicting several scenes of the human condition in grand but tiny glorious 3-D scale!

We gotcher Tree of Knowledge, made of shiny foil + a pipe cleaner snake, some sort of crazy middle arena which is basically heaven on earth and containing fantastical animals and some turkish delight (but don’t eat it because who knows whether that material is toxic), and over on the right there’ll be your hellish fire arts and raver penguins who took it just TOO FAR. Is it a metaphor for the danger of hedonism? Or a wondrous image of paradise lost? YOU BE THE JUDGE!

Tiny 2piR

Tiny 2piR. Because we need fire art at the regional!
Note: colors may be swapped out at the last minute.

Congratulations Kristen! For your Garden of Tiny Delights we grant you one dollar per exhibit, which totals $9 as Smuckles doesn’t count since he is a guest. For your Tiny 2piR, we award your full grant request of $3.

UPDATE: Kristen has already begun working on her fine art projects! See photo of 2piR a one of the raver penguins at the Regional Tiny Temple.

The first tiny art build party was such a success with so much tiny creative spirit that we have decided to do two more this weekend: One in Oakland on Saturday Aug 29th from noon to 7pm and another in San Francisco on Sunday Aug 30th from noon to 7pm.

This party is open to tiny artist going to either Balsa Man or the Balsa Man Regional in Black Rock Desert, NV.

The Oakland Tiny Art Party has been canceled! (Sorry for the late notice)

Oakland Tiny Art Build Party, Part II

Saturday, Aug 29th, noon–7pm

Near the Grand Lake Theater (email gro.namaslabnull@ofni for directions)
Hosted by the excellent @morleyroarly!

San Francisco Tiny Art Build Party

Sunday, Aug 30th, noon-7pm

Near 16th and Guerrerao (email gro.namaslabnull@ofni for directions)
Hosted by the wonderful @squidllama and @mella
San Francisco Party facebook event page

Tiny Art Build Party FAQ

• Will there be free food and booze?
  • Maybe but don’t count on it. Bring your own and while it’s not required, anyone who brings potluck food will be greeted with joyful squeals of glee!*
• Will there be art materials & tools for me to use?
  • The BPAF has donated some art materials (wood and glue) and tools (pencils, knifes, and rulers); however it is recommended that you bring your own art supplies/tools.
  • In-kind donations of extra art materials are always welcome!*
• Can I buy stickers to help support tiny art at the event?
  • but of course!
• Can I hand deliver my art grant proposal at the event?
  • Yes. A representative from the Black Pebble Arts Foundation will be on present to accept art grant proposals.

* Particularly bountiful (or delicious) in-kind donations of art materials or shared food will be receive a special gift from the Black Pebble Arts Foundation.

The Black Pebble Arts Foundation arts review committee would like to apologize to our donors. This grant was awarded while we were out. We’re not really even sure who awarded it, but the papers were signed and the grant letter was put in the post before we could do anything about it.

Bill Clinton and a grant proposal for a miniature version of “the Belgium Waffle?” Who knows what this means—as if there was only one belgium waffle in all of existence.

Well at least we’re only down $2. Congratulations, Crash! I can’t wait to see your “Pom Petit” belgium waffle—really, we are overjoyed that you will be making art for Balsa Man.

The Pacific Ocean here in San Francisco is not known for sweltering temperatures; however, that does not mean we do not need ice. Surely, if there was no ice, one’s drink may get lonely with only the glass for company. At Balsa Man, ice is especially useful just in case a participant gets over excitable; you then may find yourself in dire need of ice to cool them down.

For these reasons and more, Balsa Man has approved it’s first vendor: Polar, the one and only location where you can buy precious ice at Balsa Man! All proceeds of ice will be donated to local charitiable organizations.

Polar will be no boring vendor, Veronica Fetzner and Simon Sutherland’s artistic vision using foam core for Polar is excellent and their detailed postcard encapsulates why the Black Pebble Arts Foundation has chosen to award them a tiny art grant of $15 so they can buy baggies. This is a large grant by the BPAF standards, but we feel it’s justified due to the importance of having ice available at Balsa Man.

[Click to Enlarge]

Congratualations Veronica & Simon!

This Tiny Art Grant Proposal did not pass our review the first time around. While the teardrop trailer is cute and noticably smaller than an RV it is nowhere near 1/16th scale. Then it became lunchtime and our ability to withstand the tempting nature of the “Nom Nom Tasty Tacos!” went out the window.

Ultimately we were really won over by the arguement that the 1/16th Indian Tacos while not necessarily to scale physically are conceptually to scale as the chef themself is 1/16th Indian.

Congratulations Courtney and Roy, which ever one of you is 1/16th Indian has been awarded $5 for the purchase of Bisquick to make frybread!

[Click to Enlarge]

All additional Tiny Art Grant awards will have to wait until after the BPAF tiny art grant review committee has had lunch.

The Black Pebble Arts Foundation couldn’t continue to function if it wasn’t for there continual supply of caffeine whether it’s in the form of coffee, yerba mate, tea—I swear one of our members would keel over if she didn’t have her morning “Big Skull ‘O Tea.”

That’s why when Nina Rock sent in her proposal for the Balsa Man Cafe, we all promptly took a swig from our respective mugs and nodded silently in agreement. This project has to go forward! Without a place to fuel up on caffeine at Balsa Man, I have no idea how the members of BPAF would last the entire two and a half hour long event. For the Balsa Man Cafe, BPAF awards a grant of $10, which should buy a bag of beans of at least decent quality.

{CLICK TO ENLARGE}