ArtPrize Grand Rapids 2026
A Long-Held Goal: ‘You’re more graceful than that’ at ArtPrize 2026
I am thrilled to share that I will be participating in ArtPrize 2026 in Grand Rapids, Michigan. My piece ‘You’re more graceful than that’ will be exhibited at the DeVos Place Convention Center in the heart of downtown Grand Rapids.
ArtPrize has been a goal of mine for many years. This was my first year applying, and I was so excited to learn that my work had been selected. To enter this enormous citywide conversation about art with a piece so deeply connected to my family feels especially meaningful.
‘You’re more graceful than that’ is about my paternal grandmother, Carol. I called her Gram, and I was fortunate to know her well.
The work grew from our relationship and my desire to continue communicating with her after her death. Its title comes from something I said to Gram during our final conversation, which I recorded while she was in hospice. It is an ordinary sentence that became sacred because it was spoken near the end of our time together.
The imagery holds several moments from our shared history: our hands, a grade-school portrait of Gram and words written in her own handwriting. Some of the text comes from the back of a photograph of her holding me when I was only four hours old. Another note was written by Gram during a night in hospice. Sequins and pearls collected by her late sister reach further into our family’s history, carrying traces of a life and generation that came before us both.
These materials move through several forms before becoming the finished piece. Images originating on film and in digital files are translated into thermal prints, physically assembled and distorted through scanning. The resulting composition is printed onto velvet, cut apart and sewn back together by hand.
That process allows me to physically handle and respond to the traces Gram left behind. Her childhood, the beginning of my life and the end of hers are brought together without following a linear timeline. I can hold the handwriting she left on the back of a photograph. I can place her childhood beside my infancy. I can sew the final days of her life into materials preserved by her sister long before I was born.
The finished piece creates a space where chronology loosens its grip and my conversation with Gram can carry on.
There is something powerful about bringing this intimate family history into the scale and energy of ArtPrize. Now, it will enter a public space filled with thousands of visitors, each carrying their own memories, losses and relationships that continue beyond a person’s physical presence.
I hope viewers will spend time with the work and consider the small objects, gestures and fragments of language through which we preserve the people we love. A note, a photograph, a familiar phrase or a handful of sequins can become a place to meet someone again.
ArtPrize 2026 runs from September 18 through October 3, with Preview Week taking place September 12–17. ‘You’re more graceful than that’ will be on view at the DeVos Place Convention Center, located at 303 Monroe Avenue NW in downtown Grand Rapids.
This first ArtPrize feels like both an arrival and a continuation. I am stepping into something I have hoped to be part of for years, and I am bringing Gram with me.
