Threads of Belonging: THE ARTPRIZE INSTALLATION IN GRAND RAPIDS
The need to reconnect with my roots always brings a wave of memories of identity, belonging, and everything that shaped me.
Though I love where I live, it’s through Brazil that my creative energy finds its true rhythm again. Brazil is vibrant, colorful, and alive, and I strive to channel that pulse into everything I create. That’s where my essence lives: in the rhythm, in the energy, in the bold, vibrant hues of my heritage. This deep connection became the foundation for Threads of Belonging — a project that explores the immigrant journey through layered storytelling and participatory art.
Since moving to the United States, I’ve connected with many other immigrants, especially through ArtPrize, and we often share the same emotions: feeling like we don’t fully belong, navigating cultural differences, and experiencing the emotional highs and lows of starting over. After hearing so many of these stories, I felt compelled to do more than just represent them visually — I wanted to create space for others to become part of the conversation.
Threads of Belonging combines maps, collages, textures, and stitched words to reflect the layered experience of migration. But beneath it all, you’ll still find the colors of home — the colors that carry my story, and perhaps, echo yours too.
This project isn’t just about migration. It’s about the universal human need to be seen, to be held by community, and to know — deep down — that we belong.
I’m deeply grateful for the opportunity to share this work and honored to represent the immigrant experience through my art. 💛💚💙
The artist’s panel began with abstract painting, collage, and handwritten letters on two wooden panels. It later evolved as the artist traced her own journey with threads, mapping rupture, rebuilding, and rediscovery. In this personal panel, each color carries meaning: black threads reveal the darker side of migration, such as homesickness and struggles of identity; colorful threads celebrate resilience, cultural richness, and moments of joy; transparent threads evoke the silent burdens we carry but rarely share;
and pink threads bridge the two panels, weaving individual and collective experiences into a single story.
From this intimate act of mapping her own path, the installation expands into a shared space.
Threads of Emotion, the second panel, invites participants to select a thread that reflects how they feel about their own search for belonging. The work is not limited to immigrants — it welcomes anyone who has crossed cultures, adapted to new environments, or navigated feelings of inclusion and exclusion.
Each thread added becomes part of a map of emotions, a tactile and visual weave of experiences.
What began as the artist’s journey grows into a collective tapestry where personal stories of movement and adaptation converge into a universal expression of home and humanity.
The artist’s work also holds hidden layers of words, symbols, and fragments waiting to be revealed. Visitors are encouraged to look closely, uncover what lies between the colors, and engage with a folder of challenges designed to guide this search. Each discovery adds to the experience — a playful invitation to connect more deeply with the work.
At the end of ArtPrize, the installation will reveal colorful maps shaped by countless journeys of immigration and belonging. Add your thread, share your story, and help weave this tapestry together. And as you look, allow yourself to discover the hidden details — they may speak to you in ways you did not expect.
ArtPrize Experience
"Participating in ArtPrize 2025 was one of the most meaningful moments of my artistic journey. My installation, Threads of Belonging, invited visitors to share their emotions and stories by weaving colorful threads across the panels, transforming the artwork into a living map of connection.
Each thread represented a feeling: joy, gratitude, hope, love, belonging. Over the course of the exhibition, hundreds of people from all backgrounds contributed to the piece, turning it into something much greater than I could have imagined, a collective portrait of community, empathy, and humanity.
The poems, spontaneous words, and heartfelt confessions about belonging added a deeply emotional layer to the installation. These raw expressions, written by participants themselves, became woven into the fabric of the artwork, giving it voice, vulnerability, and truth.
Seeing people pause, reflect, and interact with the work was profoundly moving. It reminded me why I create art: to connect, to listen, and to build bridges through color and emotion.
Receiving the Latin Artist Award during ArtPrize was an incredible honor, not only as recognition of my work, but as a celebration of diversity, culture, and the shared experience of belonging.
This project will always represent more than an exhibition to me. It became a dialogue, between cultures, between emotions, between all of us who, in our own ways, are still tracing the threads of where we come from and where we belong."
