Round 1 of the ArtPrize Seven popular vote is out and there are 20 finalists hoping their piece snags the top prize!

Steve Loveless and his wife Ann took some time to talk to Wyoming Now Kentwood Now about their piece Northwood Awakening and the idea on photography as realism.

Tell us a little bit about yourself and your piece you have here at ArtPrize.

I’m Steve Loveless from Frankfurt, Michigan. I’m here with my wife Ann Loveless at the Gerald R. Ford Museum with our entry entitled Northwood Awakening. It is a photofiber combination piece. It’s a photograph at one end of the composition and a textile at the opposite end.

What was the inspiration for your piece?

It’s a scene depicting the springtime woods, trillium, and flowers in Benzie County along M22. We like to have people look at our piece and feel like they could be there. It gives them a sense of placement and a sense of belonging in a specific location.

Your piece starts as a photograph on one end. Talk a little bit about that.

Our piece also is communicating the concept of the realism of photography – the perceived realism of photography versus the interpretation of textile. So, as you view the quilt from one end to the other, it gradually transforms. Most people can’t even really tell the difference from the photography into the textile because it’s such a gradual transformation. The transformation is such that you question where does one end and where does one begin?

For myself, I ask the question, is there a difference? A difference where one ends and one begins? Because, photography arguably is a very interpretive medium in the first place, but we’re all taught to think of photography as realism.

I think you must be a little proud of your wife as she handles the crowd while you talk to us, talk a little bit about her.

I’m very proud of her. This is actually Ann’s fourth year exhibiting at ArtPrize. Two years ago, in 2013, she was the first place public vote recipient with her textile ‘Sleeping Bear Dune Lakeshore.’ We’re a great team and we enjoy sharing our work with the ArtPrize community!

Editor’s Note – The interview was held with Steve Loveless as his wife Ann talked to the ArtPrize crowd about their work.

Northwood Awakening can be seen at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum. You can vote for Northwood Awakening here.