GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Sharon Vance is an artist. Five years ago, a diagnosis of a rare form of ALS impacted her ability to create.
"I used to be able to hold my arms up to draw or paint, but it's really hard to do that now," said Vance. "I love to draw and paint, and I really wanted to keep doing that, but the fine detail I just couldn't do anymore, and it was really frustrating."
So, she turned to a different medium for her art: LEGO bricks.
"LEGO is great to use because I can lay it out on the floor and then just work as long as I want,"
She creates large-scale images using LEGOs. The first one she made won an international LEGO contest someone else entered her in.
She was diagnosed with Primary Lateral Sclerosis, which she says affects her mobility and speech.
"It is the rarest type. Only about 2,000 people in the U.S. have it," said Vance. "A lot of doctors haven't even heard about it."
For 2024 ArtPrize, she entered a piece called "A Delicate Balance." It features an image of Mother Nature and children, both stuck between the forest and the city.
"We live up in the Upper Peninsula, where we have the beautiful woods and water, and we go out in the woods for a hike, and we see garbage all over the place that people leave," said Vance. "I decided to make something that reflects the fact that it's hard to keep a balance between the beautiful nature and the mess that people make."
Her inspiration for using LEGO bricks for art came from close to home.
"I had been playing with LEGO for a long time," said Vance. "My sister and I used to have a LEGO club. She died of breast cancer about 10 years ago, and I got all her LEGO, so I thought, 'Wow, what a great thing to do. I'm just going to start making start making art with the LEGO,' and it just went from there."
Vance does not use a computer to map out her outline. She draws each one from her mind, coloring it in with LEGO bricks as she goes.
This is her seventh ArtPrize.
"I would like people to see it as an inspiration, that they can do anything they want," said Vance. "You don't have to give up on anything. Just reach your dreams. Go for it and just do it."