I have been doubly blessed this week with not one, but two art battles! Spoiled indeed. First, Ingredients and now, Iron Artist, SCRAP's annual fundraiser. For those of you somehow in the dark, SCRAP is a local re-use, re-cycle funhouse packed with all sorts of strange arts and crafts supplies you never knew you needed for dirt cheap. Saturday afternoon their fundraiser kicks off with 10 teams of artists, celebrity judges, raucous referees, and loud-mouth MCs, plus beer garden, carnival games, raffle, costumes, DJs and much, much more.

Each team will be given boxes of similar materials and three short hours for the "sculpt off". Materials will be provided by SCRAP, the ReBuilding Center, Wacky Willy's and Free Geek. The event is timed and monitored by a raucous team of referees who will throw yellow flags while handing out bonus points and demerits. Watch Team Tazo, Lensbabies, Wild Oats, Gallery 500, Junk Town and others hash it out to determine who is The Iron Artist.

The winning sculpture will be placed in the lobby of the 5th Avenue Suites Hotel for First Thursday, August 4th. Plus, this event is the perfect opportunity to check out the Northeast's newest hotspot, the Wonder Ballroom.

July 23rd, 3:30 to 10p
The Wonder Ballroom • 128 NE Russell