Born in the Netherlands in 1947, Frits became interested in art at an early age. His family first immigrated to Canada, and he became a member of the Federation of Canadian Artists at age fifteen. The family later immigrated to the USA, and before becoming a citizen, he was drafted to serve in Vietnam. Self-taught…
As a veteran wife and military mom, I designed a responsive piece called Yellow Ribbon, in partnership with Kent County Veterans Services, to honor our veterans. But this year, my expanding ArtPrize role included coaching twenty-one veterans in creating their own ArtPrize entries at Veterans Memorial Park. Each of these ArtPrize entries tells the veteran’s…
The initial concept for Yellow Ribbon took root, in partnership with Kent County Veterans Services, as we set our sights on ArtPrize 2020. Over the next few months, this community-based work involved ten veteran art workshops across West Michigan. We initially planned six workshops, but the interest level kept growing; veterans and their families felt…
For the Girls Up motivational talk with Healing in Arts, I began by sharing how, as a 22-year-old, I was considering an art graduate program on the West coast. But I decided to reset my values and goals, changing directions. Instead, I went to Japan, to teach Japanese people how to speak English. After my…
We shared one of our community projects and the corresponding lesson about swimming against the flow of culture with artist Dawn Baker from Alert Ministries. Alert creatively services incarcerated teenage boys at a Dallas juvenile detention center. Due to increased restrictions because of the pandemic, we encouraged Alert to actively seek permission to get the…
We are honored to create Stories, a collaboration with Youth For Christ and MDV Housing, located in Kalamazoo, Michigan. For this collective project, students within YFC’s program painted their own unique story on a wooden tile to include in the collage. The work emphasizes the importance of our personal stories and how our narratives define…
Divorce may be easy to obtain, but it wasn’t always that way. In 1979, Michigan’s law stated that a couple needed to wait a year before obtaining a divorce. Why? Because even the state recognized that everyone benefited when families stayed together. Plus, divorce always incurs a cost, though I’m not talking about dollars. A…