Art Prize

Back in April, Rick DeVos, grandson of Amway founder Richard DeVos, announced an international art festival/event that will be coming to Grand Rapids, Michigan this September called Art Prize. The festival will last two weeks and will feature artists from around the world displaying pieces in virtually any medium in venues all over the city of Grand Rapids. Patrons at the event will be able to vote for their favorite pieces and the top vote getter will win a staggering $250,000 prize.

This begs the question, could 3Twins get involved in the festivities?

I know what you're thinking, "3Twins is a web comic and this is a serious art competition!" But I don't think that idea could be any further from the truth.

Comics, by their nature, are a blend of art and literature. Yet, for decades they have sought to find acceptance in either medium. They seem to be deemed not intellectual enough for the literary world and not "artsy" enough for the art world. Although, all you have to do is compare the art and story of a recent comic from one 40 or 50 years ago to realize that the comic industry has created a whole new artistic and literary form. And web comics are yet another development of this new medium.

As the creators of 3Twins, Andy, Jason and I have always sought to improve our storytelling to make comics like Hatman & Indigo as fun and exciting as possible. In our early days, though, art was secondary to story. This was mostly due to the fact that we didn't have any professional artists at our disposal and we relied on artists like myself who drew as more of a hobby.

Recently, though, we have been fortunate enough to get some talented artists on board like Michael Lude who has now drawn four Hatman comics including the recent Back to the Beginning saga, plus a few other artists who you'll see in some upcoming issues.

And with these improvements in our visual quality to go along with our storytelling ability, I think that 3Twins has a true art form on its hands. Does this mean we'll be able to take part in events such as Art Prize? Actually, we already are and you can catch us as various events around the MidWest. And even if we don't enter Art Prize this year, I'm sure you'll see us at similar events in the near future.

Just stay tuned at 3Twins.net and on our blog to catch the latest updates!